Yeah, but they are still just cars. They will still need valuable real-estate for roads and parking and storage. What these are starting to sound like are trains and buses, which have existed for hundreds of years.
No. A self driving car can move itself somewhere where real estate and parking are freely available and cheap. Also, if people can utilize them like taxis then the total number of cars registered at any one time can drop dramatically.
The difference between a self-driving car and a bus/train is that the car goes wherever you want, just like a manual car.
If the most significant difference between a bus/train and a self driving car is the ability to deliver you to your doorstep, I will take the bus/train. Think of the benefits - you don't need to buy and maintain the self-driving car, and hence all the other things like insurance, parking etc. The city doesn't have to build more and more roads. Get a bit of exercise walking to your door. Really, I think these self-driving cars are just the auto manufacturers trying to extend the lifetime of their products.
The cost for parking will of course be limited as otherwise you could simply send the car out to drive around the block until you're ready to leave. That may not provide a restrictive limitation but it will be a limit in some way.
I'm now imagining huge traffic jams caused on purpose to enable electric vehicles to crawl around the city for several hours to avoid paying massive parking costs.
I can easily imagine cities mandating autonomous vehicles having to pay (automatically I guess) some kind of 'congestion' fee after driving a certain number of miles without a passenger or without covering any real distance.
