[nigekelly]

Very interested in this space and how it will end up. We have a big emotional attachment to cars evidenced by the fact that the annual cost of taking taxis everywhere is probably cheaper than the annual costs of owning a car if you live in a city. NYC habitants have probably made this transition already.

SO if we end up with self driving taxis then this form of transport will become ridiculously cheap as the driver's salary is now eliminated. The rationale to own a car will become harder to justify.

Also I read recently that our actual usage of cars is very low over a year. This means huge inefficiency. There is plenty of spare capacity per car to do alot more journeys. If we all start taking self driving taxis that run 24x7 in a few years time where does that leave the car companies. One assumes with far fewer car sales. Are they shooting themselves in the foot?

[peteretep]

    > We have a big emotional attachment to cars evidenced by
    > the fact that the annual cost of taking taxis everywhere 
    > is probably cheaper than the annual costs of owning a
    > car if you live in a city

I don't think that's true of most cities. Definitely not true of London.