[mindslight]

> More and more people live in an urban area and more and more young people use public transportation way more often, than cars. Additionally carsharing makes owning a car in a german city kinda obsolete.

It is this. What you're missing is that in the whole wide US, the number of European-density cities where most people can choose to forgo routine use of a car can be counted on one's fingers. The common layout here is a few walkable commercial blocks "downtown", that generally serve as single-destination stops for drivers who live further out.

Self driving is what's required to make the car sharing frictionless and on-demand in less-dense areas. Currently this role is being done with human owner/operators; replacing the humans with software will reduce prices and consolidate ownership of capital equipment. (Interestingly enough, it will also decrease the stickiness of supply. Instead of needing to slowly recruit driver mindshare for a new intermediary, a straightforward investment in a fleet of cars suffices)

That being said, I think this article is a bit hokey. Apple "pivot"? mm hmm.