[vkou]

Nit - taxi services utilize the capital of the vehicle more efficiently, but are far less efficient at roadway/energy utilization (As a taxi/uber has to travel to pick up its passenger.)

It's a private gain, at a public loss. If we really wanted efficient travel, we'd be investing into mass transit.

[Pyxl101]

How is it a private gain? The cost to travel to pick up a passenger is built into the price of the trip. Efficiently routing these fairs could be far cheaper than owning a vehicle that's idle most of the time, while also far more convenient than hoping your route criscrosses enough with public transit not to be inconvenient.

I personally believe the future consists of transport networks that allow you to enter your expected trip, either the present moment or planned in the future, and an autonomous system will translate your request into transit based on the price you're willing to pay (and desired level of predictable reliability). So if you travel to work around the same time every day, you can probably achieve a fairly low price with high reliability. Uber is the beginning of such a network, and if self-driving cars existed, the model would take off to a whole new level. Imagine if the vehicles were capable enough to deliver freight and packages between businesses and residences overnight while not in use (or less in use) for passengers.