How? We already have means to get from point a to point b without driving ourselves. Sure, technology would be amazing, but besides that?

On the plus side, much less stress and much more time to do things we like/find useful; many less accidents. On the minus side, many, many lost jobs. In any case, considering how important cars are in our lives, it's a trasformative technology.

Autocars have the potential to reduce the price of this kind of transportation by an order of magnitude.

> Autocars have the potential to reduce the price of this kind of transportation by an order of magnitude.

Could you cite this? I find this hard to believe. I currently pay around $70/month for an "unlimited trips" Marta transit card in Atlanta.

It gets me anywhere I want to go within the city. Getting out of the city is another story.

What's the recovery ratio of Marta?

EDIT: It's 34%. And the cost per bus passenger trip is $3.63. Yeah, I could see automatic cars (and buses) being cheaper that that, unless the average trip is very long.

http://stip.gatech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MARTA-AVs-...

The IRS reimbursement rate for auto expenses for business is about $0.50/mi. Uber rates (likely subsidized) are in the $1 - $1.50 range. You can argue about the details but your floor for self-driving cars is around what the cost to operate a vehicle is. Fleet operations have some economies of scale but they also have management and staffing costs.

Electric vehicles may someday bring down costs across the board.

Bottom line is that autonomous driving isn't a path to "too cheap to meter" transportation especially as it increases congestion in various ways.