[RenegadeXR]

In the short term, I think a merger is pretty unlikely. In the long term (20+ years), I think we're going to see a mass extinction of brands due to the inevitable changing markets. There are a lot of promising electric car companies like Rivian who might need to lean heavily on the manufacturing expertise and resources of well-established brands. Tesla, although a halo brand of sorts, is barely profitable and teeters on the edge of bankruptcy even with the Model 3 being out for a while. I have a feeling they won't be around at the end of it all despite having kickstarted things.

I think we'll see a lot of startups get acquired over the next decade and their technology or even branding will end up being a key selling point of major existing car companies who themselves will potentially undergo a re-branding. Like instead of Ford, Chevy, and Rivian existing as separate entities, you'd have a trunk called the [some brand name] Rivian that uses Ford and GM plants. Maybe that brand name would just be "Ford" for the sake of brand value and a sense of heritage, or maybe it'll be something else. Maybe they'll actually make it Ford / GMC and have GMC offer a lower-cost option to Ford vehicles but be otherwise identical, like Chevy / GMC does today. So you'd be able to buy a Ford Rivian or GMC Rivian.

There's no doubt personal car ownership is going to end one day, but I do strongly believe we're at least 50-100 years out from that. In the US, we can barely maintain our infrastructure as it is. Getting it optimized for autonomous driving is going to be a huge task.