Well, there is a big difference, of course. With public transportation you can wait at an agreed upon location where you need to go, with self-driving Uber you are picked up at home and dropped off exactly to work. In addition, it is envisaged that the application will keep you informed of the exact location of the vehicle and the expected time of arrival.

If everyone wants to be home around 5pm, you automatically get market forces. The demand is high and the price is rising rapidly, especially for single rides. The result will be that more people will choose a (slightly) different time to save money and more people will choose carpooling.

I imagine the system, certainly in some form of subscription, knows exactly that 3 others live in my neighborhood who also have to go to a similar destination, so that group can be offered cheaper.

I can already see the call-to-action in the app: “Check out 10 minutes early and save 40%!!”

Whether this should be the next thing, but also applies to that, people who don’t want it, just sign up again. In the end, it will always be cheaper than anyone owning their own car and I think the vast majority of people will still buy it (even though it’s initially meant for a second car).