Everything you said is very possibly true, and could increase road capacity, but these improvements are marginal and dominated by the fact that autonomous cars

Everything you said is very possibly true, and could increase road capacity, but these improvements are marginal and dominated by the fact that autonomous cars will cause more people to drive. Simply put adding another car on the road immediately kills whatever savings may be had by reducing the space between cars and clumsy lane merging. Right now reasons people don't drive include: - Parking too expensive - No license/ability to drive - Car too expensive to purchase. Autonomous cars sharing removes all those deterrents, and so this would cause an increase in drivers and cars on the road.