> the roads they're running on already built and paid for Roads still require maintenance, and without a profound change in how cities are organized, these cos

> the roads they're running on already built and paid for Roads still require maintenance, and without a profound change in how cities are organized, these costs are always going to be overwhelmingly large compared with the cost of everything else. > self-driving actually does is make modality, routing and scheduling less important to individual trip planning. That is the worst type of optimization. It still keeps people in desolate suburbia and makes millions of people across America with the sensation that "commute time" is a constant that can not be avoided, so it should be at least made comfortable. Investing to make the transportation systems smarter without even looking at how the urban spaces could be changed to get rid of cars is like the (myth) story of NASA putting millions of dollars to make a space pen, instead of using a pencil.