[aplummer]

> I suspect that commuting traffic will increase to eliminate this advantage.

I think maybe in the short term, but in the long term I can imagine self driving traffic moving much faster than regular traffic. Cars all accelerating at the same time at lights, Uber pool in vans becoming super cheap. Roads could dynamically add and remove lanes in a direction without needing infrastructure, since all the cars will just "know" which lanes are available. Personal cars (hopefully rarer) can drive themselves home rather than take up parking space in cities.

[rwmj]

The main advantage is the self-driving car could be an extension to your office. For instance if I have an 8 hour day with 4 hours of face-to-face meetings, then it doesn't particularly matter if the other 4 hours are spent commuting because I can work the whole time.

[jacques_chester]

I don't think self-driving cars change the dynamics of traffic. Anything that makes driving faster attracts traffic until the advantage is lost. Often, it actually turns out to be worse due to second-order effects.