Same in Manhattan! Now we only need to make most of the US as dense as London at least. I don't think it's realistic. (Also, have you tried to afford a place to live in London, to say nothing of Manhattan?)
People "prefer cars" because people prefer detached houses and low-density living. Not all of them, but plenty enough. For them, an EV is the only electric option.
In cities, of course, public transit should predominate, and should be developed and improved, while car presence should become lower and lower.
Last time I was in Manhattan was 6 years ago, but at the time an Uber was as-good-or-better than the train for a lot of within-Manhattan trips. I splurged on a bunch of Ubers since it let me see a lot more of the city at ground level, which was fun, and then quickly noticed that when you factored transfers and walking to/from stations, it was no inconvenience either.
Obviously it wouldn't scale that well for everybody but I wouldn't be surprised to see, if self driving cars master Manhattan, some more well-off people who aren't currently at "private driver" level of rich to move to self-driving cabs or such to avoid crowding and go point-to-point.
The big advantage of the trains was in leaving Manhattan and going to Long Island, though, compared to the car-bottleneck-hell of the bridges and tunnels.
we don't need to make most of the US as dense as London. we need to make the parts of the US where most people live dense enough to support public transit for most trips.
it's fine if people use ICE vehicles now and then to visit family, go to a specialty store, etc. it's the daily and weekly trips that need to be fixed.
and the breakeven point does not need to be quite so dense as London. for example, the DC area has a lot of sprawly (at least by east coast standards) suburbs. the DC metro has some room for improvement, but it is still much better than a car for getting into and out of the city during peak hours. though I'll admit I sometimes splurge for an Uber. cars are much more competitive when you don't need to park them.
Public transportation in London is awesome and everyone from the richest to poorest rides it together. The couple of times I rode in Manhattan really put me off of it. Dirty, overcrowded, pervasive smell of urine, and mostly just lower class people.
People "prefer cars" because people prefer detached houses and low-density living. Not all of them, but plenty enough. For them, an EV is the only electric option.
In cities, of course, public transit should predominate, and should be developed and improved, while car presence should become lower and lower.