[EDIT:] to clarify, the phrase "just decide" is more of a medium-term phenomenon than a short-term one, and elides a great deal of noteworthy human experience. Of course, being disadvantaged often means one can't make sudden changes to one's routine. The poor are not stupid, however. When using short-term self-driving cars is cheaper than owning "clunkers", they'll sell the clunkers and figure out how best to integrate self-driving cars into their lives.
I don't mean to single out your comment (the core idea of which I agree with), but I see similar comments on HN a lot. Completely logical, technical observations that are also quite tone deaf. To those in poverty, there's often very little they can "just decide" to do. The ability to commute at nontraditional times is very much a luxury to most.
I have to imagine that paying the bus driver is generally the largest cost for a single bus in any given public transportation system, and being able to route directly during periods of lower traffic (or high traffic even) should be much more efficient in terms of time.
Hell I bet Uber could implement scheduled ride sharing and be competitive with public transport on cost now in many cities. 4 people get grouped with the most similar commute and split a $15 fare? That gets you pretty close.
However - Something needs to be done about thet fact that generally people who are poorer have to commute further with less [0] and that if they can afford to move to a neighborhood that fixes their commute problem, they are more likely to come out of poverty [1].
We need this to not be the next tesla, but the next bus.
[0]: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/upshot/transportation-emer...
[1]: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/images/nbhds_exec_sum...