If someone does this say, every weekend all summer long, it's likely that keeping one car in the family will still be economical. Once self driving cars remove

If someone does this say, every weekend all summer long, it's likely that keeping one car in the family will still be economical. Once self driving cars remove the inconvenience of the last mile and difficulty of coordination, mixed modes of transport start to become really convenient. In your scenario, you might take a self driving cab from a suburb house to a small transfer station, transfer to an express bug/shuttle, which then takes you to a car rental. This hypothetical car rental wouldn't make much sense today, but consider a rental in a small mountain town, renting out off-road capable vehicles. From there you could go on your hike. Though this solution would be a little slower and less convenient than driving directly - on the larger scale for many people dealing with this 2 times a year would be better than the costs of owning a vehicle. Plus for many people it doesn't make sense to own a large rugged vehicle for driving in cramped downtown spaces - using the right vehicle for the job becomes an awesome option. More popular trailheads for which the drive is fully paved won't be the first area serviced by self driving cars, but would be eventually. The meta-point is this: Many people survive today just fine without owning a car at all, so it's reasonable to assume that self driving cars will expand the circle of people who's use cases will be fully covered by self driving cars. This will definitely not be everyone as soon as self driving cars come out. As this circle grows, various niches of transportation will reach a critical mass and be developed. Another example is transportation between major cities. Currently you have inconvenient greyhound busses, or the rare train in the US. Then once you get to your destination you have to deal with transportation within that city. Today it's just easier to drive a few hours, assuming you already own a car.