I totally agree that people love THEIR car. They want to OWN it and have it the same every day. Maybe they like leaving all their crap in the car "just in case."
I don't think car ownership will disappear overnight. It'll be a gradual process. But, people will adjust. Kids who are 5 now will be hailing auto-driving services from their devices before they reach age 16, and probably won't bother getting a license. They probably also won't bother buying a car when the services are cheaper/easier.
Human-driven cars will eventually go the way of the horse. Some people will own them and use them in certain designated areas. Others may rent or pay for the "experience" to drive a car themselves. But it will no longer be a practical thing to keep as a means of transportation.
Good point about insurance. It will be the same upward spiral that's expected to happen to utility companies as rooftop solar becomes more common (solar owners buy less electricity, utilities have to increase rates to non-solar owners to cover grid expenses, pushing more people to get solar).
In addition to insurance, municipalities will likely hit a point where autonomous car support/ownership/use is high enough that they'll begin to push heavily toward autonomous-only roads as they'll be safer and able to dramatically increase capacity for little cost.
There's a huge divide (difference) between the urban populace (New York, Chicago, LA, etc) and the rest of the U.S.
The urban consumer lives and works in a much smaller area or they have access to mass transit. Driving for them is an alternative. People who live in less urban areas -- such as cities with a population in the thousands, not millions -- do not always have access to mass transit and usually live farther from their work/shopping/leisure activities.
The author's argument works well for urban consumers, not so much for the rest of the U.S.
Won't the rural/suburban populace benefit the most from autonomous car services? They'll all-of-a-suddenly have access to door-to-door transportation when they previously had no choice but to own a car (or bother friends/family). Maybe rural areas will be serviced by a small fleet of self-driving pickup trucks. Farmer Joe can just order 20 bales of hay delivered from Dale's Feed & Supply and won't have to waste the hours off the farm to go get it.
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