It's why I believe L4 self-driving is the tech that will actually reverse car dependency. If robotaxi fleets become preferred to car ownership(which would occur

It's why I believe L4 self-driving is the tech that will actually reverse car dependency. If robotaxi fleets become preferred to car ownership(which would occur through the resulting economies of scale in a centralized fleet driving people to save money), the aggressive drivers stop ruling the road, replaced with polite "Three Laws" drivers; then the traffic starts downscaling because most urban trip making will work in smaller scooter or smart-car style vehicles which will benefit from continuing improvements to EV tech, and the services will optimize to cost; you'll still have the larger options available, but they appear on-demand, which makes all the difference when you're thinking about how to service a family of four. Cargo trips are already shifting in favor of autonomous delivery; two weeks ago, Wal-Mart went from testing drone delivery services to expanding them to multiple US states, and they project making 1 million deliveries this year. So some critical threshold will occur where it becomes obvious that you have a vast unused road infrastructure, because the total urban fleet has consolidated into something that is physically smaller and literally less road-dependent, and nobody is there to prop up car ownership politically except a few enthusiasts and people living out of their cars. At that point downsizing is imminent everywhere. It only took 20 years for cars to overtake horses in the industrialized world, and the bulk of it happened in 10. It'll happen faster this time.