One of the highlights of this week's Consumer Electronics Show was the prevalence of autonomous driving technologies both announced and being demonstrated. What has been regarded by some as the end of driving and the death of car culture is, in my opinion, something we should eagerly welcome for several reasons, which I've laid out below.

Fewer Accidents

Though Google's self-driving cars may have received criticism for potentially causing accidents by driving too slowly, the main rationale behind the push for autonomous cars is safety. Fewer crashes result in fewer deaths, fewer special cars taken off the road by collisions and lower insurance costs, effectively reducing the cost of motoring.

No More Boring Drives

I would be writing so many more columns if I didn't have a two hour round trip commute every day. Let's face it, commuting is the closest thing to automotive hell there is (unless you drive a PT Cruiser), and any technology that can take over this task and add days of usable time back to my life will be welcomed with open arms. Sure, you bought the manual 335xi to obtain the ultimate driving experience, but I'm pretty sure any definition of "ultimate drive" excludes stop-and-go highway traffic.

Better Gas Mileage

These days we're blessed with a glut of oil and some of the lowest gas prices in years, but we're smart enough to know it's not going to stay that way forever. When the computers take over our commutes and people stop trying to both drive and eat breakfast/apply makeup/snapchat their mistress behind the wheel, traffic will flow better and we'll find our wallets slightly heavier as a consequence of more efficient drives.

Quicker Journeys

It's pretty simple: fewer wrecks mean fewer backups, meaning smoother commutes and getting to destinations faster. Side effects will likely be sleeping in later (of which I'm a HUGE fan), less road rage and fewer excuses for being late for meetings. Which, depending on your meeting, could be good or bad.

Increased Mobility for Non-Drivers

As the grandchild of an incredible man who lived a fantastic life, yet drove through the front of a Shoe Carnival after mistaking the gas for the break as one of his final contributions of hilarity, I'm quite looking forward to supplanting some seniors with supercomputers. It won't just help the elderly, blind or disabled individuals incapable of piloting a vehicle could achieve greater independence through the use of autonomous vehicles.

Smarter Roads/Infrastructure Development

One thing's for sure, self-driving cars aren't going to happen on a large scale for quite some time, and one of the chief hurdles is the existing infrastructure. Investment to prepare these roadways for the autonomous vehicle revolution will result in better roads and hopefully some additional resources to advance other aspects of life - say a smarter electrical grid or power-generating streets.

This is Not Automotive Singularity

Think about what the car means to America. More than almost anything else, cars represent our liberty, independence and autonomy. Cars are more a part of life here than in any other country in the world and inspire everything from songs to art to this glorious website. You think there will be country music tracks about being taken to the lake by dad's old Tesla Model X?

Think about automotive regulation in relation to gun control - granted, there isn't an amendment guaranteeing us the right to drive - where there's a constant push and pull between the preservation of individual liberties and new regulations to ensure greater safety. I think this is what will happen with cars, and it will come piecemeal, with the interstate system the first to gain an autonomous vehicle lane, then maybe become all autonomous at some point.

But the back roads, the winding country highways and twisty mountain paths that provide motoring nirvana, these will remain the bastion for enthusiasts, where we take both control and pleasure when driving. Where, if we see a scenic outlook and want to pull over, we don't have to scramble to enter an alternate destination to the trip computer. These are the drives we crave anyway, and technology has a very long way to come before it's capable of traversing such roads and avoiding the random rock slides and raccoons that these roads throw at you.

Further, this technology is expensive, which poses a high barrier to entry for many people, some of whom may never be able to afford a self-driving car. Sure, economies of scale will take over, eventually making this tech cheaper, but think of how many early 90s Toyota Corollas you still see on the roads, driven by people who want or need inexpensive transportation to and from their jobs. Short of a federal regulation banning human drivers, these types of old, reliable, simple cars will continue to be a staple of the roads.

And speaking of federal regulations, see what Vice President Joe Biden had to say to Car & Driver in a 2011 interview:

"I still have my 1967 Goodwood-green Corvette, 327, 350-horse, with a rear-axle ratio that really gets up and goes. The Secret Service won’t let me drive it. I’m not allowed to drive anything. It’s the one thing I hate about this job. I’m serious."

Even more, President Obama just showed up this week riding in a '63 Corvette Stingray (Split Window!) with Jerry Seinfeld. Politicians can be and are car people, and the push-back against regulations limiting the freedoms of drivers would be strong and swift. It's our job to remind our representatives that we're here, we steer and we want to go places. If the cost of progress and safety is giving up the more boring drives, I'm totally on board.