[njoro]

Not having to own a car to travel by car will of course increase driving, or being driven really. A situation where there is only self-driving cars is probably decades away at he minimum. And that doesn't really solve inherent throughput or speed issues.

[airstrike]

Even if self-driving cars are 50% of the fleet, these cars drive better and can collectively work around traffic jams, so even human-driven cars benefit from automation.

[jellicle]

Not only "doesn't really solve", but "makes vastly worse".

[tim333]

Not necessarily

>... technology move people from their homes or work to existing public infrastructure hubs

could be a thing. Also maybe some sort of road pricing to stop them being clogged with empty cars going to get pizza.

[icebraining]

Not having to own a car to travel by car will of course increase driving, or being driven really.

I'm not sure. When you own a car, you pay large fixed costs but your marginal cost per mile is low, whereas with rented cars it's the reverse.

Sure, people who don't own cars currently will probably ride more, but everyone who does have a car now will have an incentive to ride less.

[ghaff]

Your visible marginal cost (i.e. mostly your fuel) may be low but the vast bulk of car costs are proportional to mileage--especially in areas where salt in various forms (winter roads, marine) isn't an issue.

[icebraining]

It doesn't really matter if it's lower than the fixed costs, it matters whether it's lower than these hypothetical rented cars, and most likely, it is.