>A couple caveats for those going apoplectic over the headline: I mean self-driving isn’t going to be a thing A) in our lifetimes and B) with any kind of omnipr

>A couple caveats for those going apoplectic over the headline: I mean self-driving isn’t going to be a thing A) in our lifetimes and B) with any kind of omnipresent scale Sure, you cannot deny the fact that it already happening. There's a surprising number of driverless cars on the road already. In terms of meeting the 'omnipresent scale'. This is much harder. There's a ton of people whose life choices mean their car budget is <$5000. Which means they can only afford 20 year old death trap beaters. So how does society get to the point where $150,000 driverless cars can be afforded by those people? It's from the amortization table and depreciation. It might be decades before there can be any major proliferation. That isn't the goal of driverless. The obvious caveat is most manufacturers are working on subscription models. The interesting thing about the current system. A tremendous cost to society is the poor investment into transportation. You drive around a city and you'll see millions of $ sitting in driveways not doing anything. Whereas public transit is certainly not the alternative to this poor investment. This is where the driverless taxis come in. The people who genuinely use their vehicles to a significant extent can still do so, but most people really just need low cost transportation. Which is indeed why public transit must exist and also why large cities are repairing that huge wealth damage. In the near future public transit like buses will go away and be replaced by driverless taxis. Not exactly nostradamus to see that coming. This will be what presents driverless cars at an omnipresent scale. This absolutely will be happening very soon.