If AV taxis are cheap then people are going to use them for all sorts of things they previously could not afford to use a taxi for.
And if they're expensive then they will cannibalize public transport for the benefit of the upper economic classes and the significant detriment of people of lesser means.
There is no way this turns into a net good.
Self driving cars are cheaper than regular taxis to run.
The incentives are aligned.
The whole point is that self driving cars will be cheaper than regular taxis.
This isn't some crazy complicated social media business plan. Instead the business plan is simply.
Costs of running taxis go down, therefore complete with regular taxis with lower prices.
So yes, this is all good for consumers.
And not everything can be refuted by referring to a pitty viral article that doesn't apply to the right industry.
> all so you don't have to ride in icky 'public transit
Cars aren't going away. There will be lots and lots of places that still use cars, for a very long time, regardless of how much additional public transit funding a couple cities add.
And yes, this means that cars self driving are a benefit.
That's the process of "Enshittification" by Cory Doctorow. And it's blatantly obvious by your comment that we're in stage 1, "good to their users".... except people LOVE free shit. But no techbro gives shit away for free. This is 'buy-in' and training data.
It ONLY gets worse from here.
And 100 cars on the road is still 100 cars on the road, even if only carrying 100 people. It's a waste of energy, waste of resources, and climate-destroying by fact of all that asphalt and resources to make said cars... all so you don't have to ride in icky 'public transit', cause that's what the "poors" take.