[justJanne]

Or you could have people use busses or other transit methods.

Yet a common criticism when that is suggested is that only the poor use public transit, and that everyone in public transit smells bad.

Which is what I’m questioning here: Self-Driving cars provide no real technological advantage over existing transit methods, and the real issues are social problems.

And we can’t solve social problems with technological solutions.

[dao-]

They very much do provide real technological advantage. They can be smarter than traditional public transit, allow you to be more flexible, reduce waiting times, allow you to get from A to B without changing trains / buses, get rid of stops, eliminate the last couple of hundred meters that you may have to walk today, etc.

[ForHackernews]

Theoretically, you could have multiple self-driving bus operators, and price-discriminate between them. Rich people would pay more to commute in a bus with leather seats, premium coffee and fast wifi, with the added bonus of not having to breathe the same air as the poors.