re: AC
Just like a taxi (think Uber on steroids). But you eliminate the cost of the driver.
The biggest reason given for keeping a car is the convenience. If the automated driving car system can provide a service as convenient as keeping a car, then that will go a long way towards getting people to accept a different system.
From the car manufacturers pov, margins are getting thinner and they sell more cars for less profit. Moving from a personal ownership model to a purely "leased" scheme could offer the chance for increased profits, on a lower number of actual cars produced. Many dealerships already offer similar options where in fact you are never actually going to own the car, just continue to make monthly payments; and this is where many of them are actually making their money these days.
So you might end up with a multiple tiered system; less than 6 month old cars for those that want to pay extra, slightly older cars for the hoi polloi. (Shitty, beat up old wrecks for me!)
I'm not saying that it will all happen in the next 10 years, but I'm betting that we will see things start to develop in that time; and I still think that it will happen a bit faster than most people expect.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
