Google's surprise revelation of its first in-house self-driving car prototype shook the auto industry like a California earthquake this week, and quickly became the biggest car news of the year.

To an industry that still expects journalists to come to its car shows, Google's announcing its "first car" at the a conference put on by Silicon Valley journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg was almost as shocking as the fact that the vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals. Though the Silicon Valley-facing launch was a blow to the industry's pride, Google's decision to abandon traditional vehicle controls is what will keep auto executives up at night.

Whether Detroit wants to accept it or not, driverless cars will be the key step forward in a the trend away from ownership of cars and toward access to mobility. They herald the end of an industry model built on scale.