---
title: "Elon Musk Compares Driving a Non-Autonomous Vehicle in 2037 to Riding a Horse Today"
description: "Elon Musk shared his vision for the future of non-autonomous cars with U.S. lawmakers."
date: "2017-07-17"
modified: "2017-07-17"
authors:
  - name: "Dom Galeon"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/domgaleon"
url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-compares-driving-a-non-autonomous-vehicle-in-2037-to-riding-a-horse-today"
categories:
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "Autonomous vehicles"
  - "driverless cars"
  - "elon musk"
  - "Self-driving cars"
---

# Elon Musk Compares Driving a Non-Autonomous Vehicle in 2037 to Riding a Horse Today

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/architecture-1835112_1920-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/architecture-buildings-cars-city-1835112/" target="\_blank"\>Pixabay\</a\>\</em\>*

"In 10 years, I think, almost all cars produced would be autonomous," Tesla CEO and founder [Elon Musk told his audience](<https://www.inverse.com/article/34231-tesla-ceo-elon-musk-says-regular-cars-will-be-like-horses-in-20-years>) of more than 30 U.S. governors in Rhode Island on Saturday. The innovative entrepreneur was the guest in a keynote conversation during the [National Governors Association Summer Meeting](<https://www.nga.org/cms/SummerMeeting2017>), and he spoke about — [among other things](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-unregulated-ai-could-be-the-biggest-risk-we-face-as-a-civilization>) — the future ubiquity of autonomous vehicles in automakers' production lines.

"It will be rare to find one that is not, in ten years. That’s going to be a huge transformation," Musk asserted.

While he believes autonomous systems will comprise the vast majority of newly produced cars by then, however, the shift to self-driving cars outnumbering traditional ones on the roads will take about five to ten more years. That doesn't mean all human-driven cars will be gone 20 years from now, however.

https://youtu.be/2C-A797y8dA?t=2564

Musk expects the shift to autonomous systems will be similar to the one that took place following the introduction of the first mass-produced automobiles about a century ago, which displaced the previous mode of transportation: horses.

"It will be like having a horse. People have horses, which is cool. There will be people who have non-autonomous cars, like people have horses," he explained. "It would just be unusual to use that as a mode of transport."

With autonomous vehicles predicted to be [safer and more efficient](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-people-skeptical-of-autonomous-cars-are-essentially-killing-people>) than their traditional counterparts, hopefully these owners of the next-generation of "classic" cars will choose to keep them in the garage more often than they take them on the road.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-john-galeon-9b086925/>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/domgaleon>)