Automotive fly-by-wire is inevitable, because the autonomous automobile is inevitable--i.e. a vehicle that does the driving for us. I've written about this, and yes, I've heard all the pry-my-car-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands outrage, but you're wasting your time resisting it.
We live in an age where driving skill is rapidly declining and where distractions are rapidly increasing. Sure, there are Michael Schumachers here and there, but the vast majority of motorists have no idea how wide their vehicle is, which is why you see them driving down the middle of the two-lane road, and are as talented at skid control as they are at playing the twelve-string guitar (which, incidentally, is why a considerable number of new models have FBW stability-control and anti-rollover platforms).
So in a decade or two we will have a nation of drivers (at least in the U. S., unlike Germany, say) who have only enough driving talent to back the car out of the garage and put it into drive, and who have bought their car specifically because it offers Internet connectivity, video, and a variety of voice and other comm systems. They will _require_ an autonomous car.
The interesting thing is that all of the hardware to make this work--yaw sensors and other accelerometers, cruise-control radar, GPS, telematics and all the rest--are already on the shelf. We need some software, but DARPA has already shown that totally autonomous vehicles, without even a driver aboard, are eminently possible.
So if you won't buy or even ride in FBW cars, you're eventually gonna be walking.
Stephan Wilkinson