[beagle3]

There is no autonomous car that has been certified to be without someone who can drive it inside - and it's likely that such certification is still a few years away. I would guess it will take 2-3 years of cars driving on their own with hardly ever any need for a person to intervene before such certification is given.

In my city there are many small streets with bad traffic and environment, that at least once a week I need to verbally negotiate with other drivers who goes first and who goes back. If all cars are autonomous, they may negotiate that; But if only half are, I don't see how this will work.

Most US cities have the benefit of being built for cars; But most European cities do not; and even in the NYC, there are weird small streets that often require negotiation among drivers.

[coldcode]

I have not seen autonomous cars drive in snow and ice and road construction on any regular basis. Until that works I can't imagine driverless cars anywhere except in good weather states.

[jessaustin]

In NYC at least, robocars could just avoid the goofy streets, since the easily navigable streets are never that far away.

[avn2109]

What if your apartment is on a goofy street?

[wutbrodo]

There's a whole spectrum from door-to-door taxi service to fixed-route public transit. I don't see why consumer expectations couldn't be set such that it's not weird to be dropped off a block or two away. Take a (more expensive) manned car if you need to be dropped at your door step. The same tradeoff id already at play with buses vs taxis/Uber.

[morgante]

Plus there's already a precedent in Uber Pool for something that's in between a bus and a taxi. They even will ask you to walk a short distance sometimes.

[dripton]

Pickup / dropoff at nearest non-goofy intersection.