You’re correct, self driving cars are not going to reduce traffic. A car has an average of 1.5 passengers in it while driving and it spends some 95% of its time

You’re correct, self driving cars are not going to reduce traffic. A car has an average of 1.5 passengers in it while driving and it spends some 95% of its time parked. Because they’re low/single occupancy vehicles and everybody is trying to get to and from work at approximately the same time you still need to have capacity for every single person at peak time. Any temporary reduction in traffic is immediately filled up by an increase in demand. Just look at the last 50 years of urban development of the United States and tell me adding a few more lanes it’s gonna fix anything. Lyft is basically a self driving car if you squint, and it did nothing. Throw in a couple trains and some busses people actually want to take, and you might actually solve the problem. I have yet to see a plausible explanation for how self-driving cars are to reduce traffic.