Well... depending on who you source, the majority of people already live in urban environments. In the US, the most recent figure from the census is 62.7%, which is more narrowly defined at % of population living in cities[1]. If you count "urban areas" which includes towns and villages, it is north of 80% [2]
Worldwide, we are at ~54% living in cities. [3]
This trend seems to be continuing globally as well [4], so pretty soon people in non-urban environments may have no choice (assuming, as I do, that cars will get more expensive as they have more and better technology and are much more highly utilized due to sharing)
No choice? In rural environments, where you have to drive an hour to a small city and 3+ hours to a large city, and there are no local businesses, no one is going to be operating self driving cars for hire. Electric cars aren't currently practical in such places either, though over time that will likely change as battery and charging tech improves—but I don't see shared ownership or commodity car usage replacing ownership rurally at any point, and there will always be people living rurally. If new cars stop becoming available at a reasonable price to buy, then people will continue repairing, rebuilding and using old cars.
Seems possible that as automation of delivery services becomes more widespread (e.g. drone delivery), and as both remote work opportunities and entertainment technologies increase, there will be less of an incentive, or at least less of a financial/work-related incentive to for populations to accrete around centralized urban developments. So the growth of urban vs. rural or suburban population rates may potentially slow in a few decades. Maybe, but probably not, idk.
I live in what's considered an urban area due to population density. But I wouldn't personally describe it as urban. I have multiple farms near my house, and on the way to work, I pass by numerous farms for a good part of the way. Be careful confusing urban with city. It's merely population density.
Regardless, Uber et. al. doesn't reach where I live. It's not an option. It's not a choice at the moment. Living in an urban area doesn't mean you are living in the city. Public transportation is a long way off from being viable out here in these urban areas.
Right now, you cannot live and work here without having a car (unless you limit yourself to very specific conditions, but that could be said for all locations). And again, this is considered to be an urban county.
> The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urban area as: "Core census block groups or blocks that have a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile (386 per square kilometer) and surrounding census blocks that have an overall density of at least 500 people per square mile (193 per square kilometer)."
By that definition, which would seem to completely rule out farming, I doubt you're actually in an urban area.
Worldwide, we are at ~54% living in cities. [3]
This trend seems to be continuing globally as well [4], so pretty soon people in non-urban environments may have no choice (assuming, as I do, that cars will get more expensive as they have more and better technology and are much more highly utilized due to sharing)
[1] http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-33.h... [2] http://www.citylab.com/housing/2012/03/us-urban-population-w... [3] http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-... [4] https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/publications/files/wup2014-highl... (page 7, Figure 2)