[brwr]

I think you may be experiencing recall bias.

How do you get to work every day? How often do you go to the grocery store? What about going out to dinner?

For myself, living in the Bay Area, anything related to driving or owning a car is a nightmare -- not that that has stopped me from owning a car. Driving from Mountain View to San Mateo takes about 45 minutes in the morning at 75 minutes in the evening. I went to SF to have breakfast with a friend this past weekend and finding parking took half an hour. I'd love a self-driving car that could just drop me at my door. Autonomous cars should also lead to drastic traffic improvements, assuming the cars will eventually be able to communicate with each other in a reliable way.

Maybe you live in a less densely-populated area? I have an aunt that lives in a rural area and I couldn't imagine a need or desire for autonomous cars there.

There is definitely a long way to go, but think of all the advantages! Parking can be automated and condensed, which means more land is available for buildings or parks or anything else. If you suffer from traffic problems now, your daily commute could be cut by 50% or more. Shared vehicles should cost less than what you pay for gas and insurance now. High availability is a real possibility if someone can figure out how to make the economics work. Ride sharing can be almost completely automated, leading to less pollution.

[riprowan]

I don't think you read my comment clearly. I think autonomous cars are going to be quite popular, but I don't understand how that necessarily leads to shared instead of privately owned autonomous cars.

[brwr]

Ah. We might be talking past each other. Looking back, a number of the advantages I mentioned are inherent in having self-driving cars. But the benefits compound when we have shared self-driving cars.

Example:

Traffic is improved with self-driving cars because most traffic jams are caused by humans. However, traffic is improved even more when carpooling is automated with a shared self-driving fleet.

Shared autonomous cars will become popular as these compounded benefits are realized.

[riprowan]

I understand the points you're making. But I think you failed to address my question. Let me rephrase.

We have fleets of shared vehicles today, but most people prefer personal transportation.

What is it about autonomous shared cars vs shared cars with a human driver that makes you believe that driverlessness will lead to increased use of shared vehicles vs personal vehicles?