sure, but this why ownership as a concept is actually quite nice - i can decide right now to do something with my car. i don't need to plan ahead. i am not dependent on anybody else. i gladly pay for that luxury.
When you travel abroad, does it trouble you that it's not your plane? Eventually, the majority of people won't care. Some will pay a premium to have a dedicated car or service level, but I would happily be rid of mine.
The ability to book the type of car I need (van to move something large, ute to deliver dirt/gravel, tiny car to commute, 4WD for a family camping trip) as the default way of thinking can't come soon enough for me.
When you travel abroad, does it trouble you that it's not your plane?
Actually, it is quite a hassle to have to operate on the airline's schedule rather than on my own, not to mention having to make travel arrangements weeks in advance. It's just that owning and operating an airplane myself is too expensive for me. Since moving to Boston, so is owning a car. That said, I am definitely not planning to switch to rental bicycles.
Yes, and surely some people (particularly in less dense suburbs and rural areas) will continue to own cars. They will just be self-driving cars, because manually operated cars will be illegal.
You write:
> because manually operated cars will be illegal.
I have a question for you. How many years after the introduction of the gasoline powered automobile did it take before horse-drawn vehicles became illegal on the roads?
Near where I live (eastern Pennsylvania, USA) one still encounters a horse-and-buggy occasionally, especially near Amish areas. And a few roads (interstates and limited access highways) are specifically posted for motor vehicles only.
I posit that there will be a LONG period in which manually operated cars will share the road with self-driving cars.
Have you ever used Lyft. In my experience (SF), it literally takes minutes for a car to show up. More often than not, I am still looking for may keys/wallet/jacket or brushing my teeth when the car gets here. I imagine an autonomous car service would be even faster, as car availability could be highly tuned to demand (Lyft and Uber are using comparatively crude methods of demand/availability management, surge pricing).
As others have mentioned, the car-sharing model works best in urban areas, and no one is suggesting that we ban individuals from owning cars. But I will also add that we have spent the last 100 years building infrastructure and public spaces to accommodate for a car-centric society, but this has had a negative impact on people who prefer other forms of transportation. Public transportation is severely underfunded and inadequate in most places, pedestrians and bikers are getting mowed down by reckless drivers, tons of public land is being poorly utilized as parking space, and our air is getting polluted to unprecedented levels. Your "peace of mind" comes at a high cost to the rest of society. Autonomous cars are not a silver bullet for all of these problems by any means, but they can go a long way in getting us to a better place with most of these issues.
