Average trip length is about ~12km[1] (we are talking about Europe so no weird units, sorry not sorry) and 22mn. That's about 33kmh, less than most speed limits within the cities.
What it means is that most car trips are short and slow.
I consider myself as someone who likes to drive. But I don't own a car because most of my trips (done on my bicycle) are done in the city where I know I'm more efficient on my bike than if I was driving. So to me, self-driving cars are of little to no interest because when I drive, it's for trips longer than 100km and at an average speed around 100kmh, and I want to take the wheel and have manual gears.
But when I talk to people that drives daily, they mostly agree on the fact that they hate driving, because their trips are short and slow. But they hate even more "the people", so they dont want to use mass transit.
And for them, self-driving is appealing because it means they can still travel in their private bubble, but instead of having to be concentrated on what surronds them to avoid crash or having issues with the law, they can do whatever they want : sleeping, watching Netflix...
I'm sure hiring a taxi will have the same benefits and it will end up being cheaper and even more convenient when you consider all the costs and hassles, which including parking in these short trip situations, insurance, rapid depreciation, maintenance, etc. The issue with mass transit is always the last mile, but foldable lightweight e-scooters and mini e-bikes can solve it.
I consider myself as someone who likes to drive. But I don't own a car because most of my trips (done on my bicycle) are done in the city where I know I'm more efficient on my bike than if I was driving. So to me, self-driving cars are of little to no interest because when I drive, it's for trips longer than 100km and at an average speed around 100kmh, and I want to take the wheel and have manual gears.
But when I talk to people that drives daily, they mostly agree on the fact that they hate driving, because their trips are short and slow. But they hate even more "the people", so they dont want to use mass transit. And for them, self-driving is appealing because it means they can still travel in their private bubble, but instead of having to be concentrated on what surronds them to avoid crash or having issues with the law, they can do whatever they want : sleeping, watching Netflix...
[1] : https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/J... Tables 4.22 & 4.23