I was listening to Google's ultimate plans for automated cars, and it was for communal usage. So for example, what would you do during an engine problem along the road? Well, the car would be programmed to move to the shoulder, and then you'd get out and jump onto one of the other cars that's zipping along the highway and looking for possible passengers. The engineer who was being interviewed discussed how this system would be more efficient overall. Now commuters don't have to waste an hour driving: They can spend that time reading, doing taxes, or sleep some more. We wouldn't need to devote space to parking lots since all the necessary cars are already on the road. And the cars themselves would be more effective because instead of sitting in your driveway for the twenty hours of the day you're not using them, they'd be picking up all sorts of people.

Let me put out this disclaimer: I actually dislike driving. If I had to pick public transit over driving I'd do it any day. Because driving myself means time spent traveling is me focusing on the road instead of playing video games or reading as I usually do. And I actually sometimes still get a little carsick, which never ever happens to me on the train or bus, even when that double decker Amtrak was swaying back and forth precariously across the Nevada desert. But Google's plan just sounded absolutely terrible to me. If there's one thing I've learned as a public transit user, the moment it becomes public everything goes to shit. Those cars are probably going to be the filthiest things in the world. On the train people are still cowed by social pressure since we're all standing together, and yet that stuff still comes out terrible. Can you imagine taking that context to the quite solitude of a car that you don't own? People would just be awful: leaving dirty diapers on the seat, vomit everywhere...