[GoLocalApps]

You only need the three cars if you insist on owning the vehicle you're riding it. So if Mom, Dad and Kid all need to be somewhere different at the same time, Uber Pool could work for two of the three, or all three while the car is earning more as Uber Black (or the future equivalent). They only need their own vehicle if they want to ride together.

[saosebastiao]

If Mom, Dad, and Kid need to be in different places at the same time during peak travel time, there is still a demand for 3 vehicles regardless of who owns them. The effect on total vehicle fleet is unchanged.

The better pooling effects of subscription or on-demand fleets mitigate this problem in most scenarios, but it doesn't mitigate it during peak times. Peak vehicle utilization will be what drives total vehicle fleet size.

[mrgordon]

Even if the members of the family are going different places, each of them can likely share a car with other people heading in the same direction (e.g. to the same school or workplace, to the same city from the suburbs, etc.)

[saosebastiao]

The same capability currently exists independently of driverless cars. What makes you think the utilization of this tactic will change with driverless cars?

[biot]

Coordinating this is a hassle. With driverless cars, you could say "I need a vehicle to take me from A to B" and a vehicle just shows up, possibly with one or more passengers who were already enroute to B. It wouldn't surprise me if that becomes the norm with an option for "I require a private trip" for an extra fee.

[saosebastiao]

I currently have two apps on my phone that provide me a way of saying "I need a vehicle to take me from A to B". Both have attempted to do what you are talking about, but have settled on something more similar to "Walk to checkpoint A and wait for 5 minutes and you'll be dropped off at checkpoint B that is kinda close to where you actually want to go".

As it turns out, coordinating rides is pretty difficult, even with sophisticated software doing a lot of the work for you. Maybe if either of those companies had huge market shares, then maybe the problem gets easier. I'm not counting on it.

[shoyer]

Uber and Lyft already do this in San Francisco, and it works very well.

[mrgordon]

Not sure where you live but I agree with shoyer that Lyft Line and Uber Pool serve this functionality very well in San Francisco, New York, and presumably also the other major metros where they've launched it (Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C for Lyft Line)

[prawn]

Taxis are expensive and public transport isn't as convenient. A minibus taking me from within a block of my house to within a block of my work would get my business.

Labour costs are a significant part of any such operation, where I live at least.