My car doubles as a "everything I need when I take the kid out" storage. We always have:

- diapers

- changing pad

- strollers

- extra clothes

- kids movies for the tv in the van, queued up to where we left off

Sure, people in places like NYC just carry all that stuff with them when they take the kid out, but they also take the kid out less often or move to the burbs because it's a huge pain in the butt.

I'd much rather own the car simply so that I can keep all my stuff in it that I need when I go out.

When I lived in the Metro DC area (Bailey's Crossroads in NoVA) with a 1-2 year old we kept that stuff in the bottom of our stroller (mostly in a single medium-sized bag). We took the stroller everywhere via buses and trains. We very rarely drove our vehicle while living in DC since a couple grocery stores, several restaurants, and several department stores were within easy walking distance (about a mile) from our house. With the stroller, we used carabiners to hold bags on the walk back. For longer excursions (all day to a museum or zoo), I'd bring a backpack with misc stuff in addition to what was in the stroller. Our stroller had a detachable car seat integrated (the car seat set locked into the stroller when using it as a stroller), which allowed us to use taxis if needed.

Yes, we've done all that too when traveling. But it's a lot easier to just hop in the car and go, knowing that all that stuff is already there.

It's only easier if you know you'll have parking at your destination. If you live in a city with convenient transit service, you don't need to worry about parking.

And if you want to take a long stroll down the waterfront, you don't need to return to your car to go home, you just hop on a different train.

... and someone else mentioned the car seat, too. Always fun!

However: unless you are planning a very large family, this is a transitory phase. I noted as my kids matured the amount of crap you have to lug around drops precipitously. I can't see that many people needing to carry the stuff on the bulky end of this for years and years. I carried my kids sequentially in a back-pack (3 years separation, so #1 was walking everywhere when #2 came along) and managed to fit all the above (aside from movies) into the back pocket of the kid backpack (strongly recommended for the transition to walking, incidentally, as a backpack is almost zero hassle when empty, while a stroller is just as hard to push empty as full).

But back on topic: you could lease a car/van for the Peak Kid bit of your life and still save money.

Yeah I know it goes down over time and then won't be an issue anymore. We did in fact get a van that I plan to keep for Peak Kid.

I fully expect to be using at least one driverless vehicle before they leave to college. I'm just not sure if it will be exclusively a rented driverless car or something else.

Wait until your kids get involved in sports and you have to haul around a trunk full of equipment.

For non-personally-owned self-driving cars to catch on, you'd probably have to see an expansion of convenient storage lockers near parking lots.

don't forget the bulky and heavy car seat(s)

For subscription cars to be even remotely usable by anyone with small children, you have to summon a car with the correct configuration of car seats.

Having to install one just won't fly. if you can't get one with the right car seats, it's a no go for a daily use family car. On the other hand it might easily work as a second car in such families. I'll probably need to own/lease my own car for the foreseeable future, but I'd be very happy to not have to own two like I do now. And my requirements for a second car are much simpler.

Right!! I totally forgot that part because it's just always there. But yes that's actually the worst part.

Easy, have a self driving cart to follow you wherever you go!

pfft, made up problems. You will submit to not owning anything. You don't need a house either, just go to an AirBnB every night.

Everything must be a service. Ideally provided by google.

Next thing your going to say is that waiting for 15 minutes in the rain with a crying baby while you get gouged for triple price because of nearby concert is a problem for you. Just suck it up and accept that car ownership is a outdated idea and you need to bow to the will of the tech hipsters and conglomerates.

An entire AirBnB? You're just an opinion-having meatball, there to get adverts screamed into your face 24/7 while you have opinions and allocate your UBI.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzOVUGrIIAAH8c9.jpg:large

There won't be everything as a service, because you won't have anything. There's no need for you to do anything in this fiat-advertising-bubble-money future world. Expect maybe a stream of soylent and a ventilated cage, unless you have pro-tier skills in extracting money from Stanford Prison Experiment 'customers'.

we (people with families), will just create our own zones outside of cities with identical tacky housing that will make childless hipsters go blind. there will be no avocado toast, and the only music will be alternative rock from the mid 1990s

Hey I have a family and you better not even try taking away my avo toast buddy!

I agree, say now you may have two CARS each costing $400/month ( AAA estimate ) Total cost of ownership ( Insurance, gasoline, Repairs, depreciation ).

Now when some thing is available for $200/month , you won ONE CAR like OLD way ( for Kids etc.. ), and your spouse may use FLEET CAR .

Sure, I can totally see us ditching the second car for a self driving subscription. We barely use the second car as is, but we use it just enough that it's still cheaper than Lyft/Uber. Unless the self driving rental were even cheaper, it wouldn't make sense.

I store tons of stuff in my car so I can have it available at all of the various places I end up, and while I would happily believe I am not in the majority, this does not seem to be something that would be rare. While I don't feel the need to "own" a car (I literally rent a car continually, paying in 30-day cycles), it would be extremely annoying to not have consistent control over most of the storage space in a car (I often even have stuff in the back seat I am dragging around with me forever). And no: while I do love driving, I feel no need to drive, and would welcome a future where the car drove for me... but it will be a much more awkward arrangement to get me to be OK just summoning random cars temporarily.

It would be pretty easy for a fleet service to also provide a bin that you can persistently store your stuff in. When you summon a car, the system puts your bin in before it goes to get you.

I envisage systems of standardised storage lockers, you can pull the whole locker into your car, 4 fit in the car for 4 users, you can wheel them into work, or lock into cabinets around the place, when there's no car parks they'll be lots of free space, 1% can be for storage lockers.

Why would there be no car parks?

People tend to travel at similar times. Your total number of cars required is still going to be high.

Because it's just a drop off point as all cars are now taxis

I agree, there are good % of people like you for all right reasons to have a their OWN CAR "same CAR" every day.

There will be different flavors of pricing for needs like yours, like 'Keeping CAR With you'. How about this pricing

Option 1: The CAR will be in serving people 10 streets around your Home, will be available whenever you want but costs you $300 /month ( It will have two Locker boxes in the Truck to keep your Items ALL the time, and your LOCKER BOX opens only with your Smart Phone ).

Option 2: you lease Autonomous car, it is all yours to keep, but the price is like $500/month Lease .

Lockers in the trunk reduce the ability to go grocery shopping :/

There is no Ownership, it is Summon only

When I said, $200/month for 1000 miles/month is one time pay, there is NO per ride PAY. It is like you pay your Cell Phone Bill.

Use those 1000 miles in that month whenever you want .

But do you get rollover miles?

It is Summon only, no ownership.

when I said $200/month SUBSCRIPTION for 1000 miles, no Per RIDE pay

WHY must YOU keep CAPITALIZING RANDOM WORDS?

Sorry, I will avoid that in future ..

I recommend surrounding words with asterisks to get a less screamy emphasis.