So what is the functional difference between a shared-ownership, driverless car, and a standard human-driven taxi?
Don't underestimate the price difference. It's one of those things where a large enough quantitative difference becomes a qualitative difference.
In the US it costs around $15-$20/hour to hire a taxi driver (median wage is $11.20 per hour). Over the course of a month (24/7) that starts to approach the cost of the car. Granted, the taxi isn't used 24/7, but the operator still has to recoup the cost of having it available all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if about 90% of the cost of a taxi is due to employing the driver.
Even if all you do is reduce the cost of a trip by a factor of ten, you're going to see big changes.
Don't underestimate the price difference. It's one of those things where a large enough quantitative difference becomes a qualitative difference.
In the US it costs around $15-$20/hour to hire a taxi driver (median wage is $11.20 per hour). Over the course of a month (24/7) that starts to approach the cost of the car. Granted, the taxi isn't used 24/7, but the operator still has to recoup the cost of having it available all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if about 90% of the cost of a taxi is due to employing the driver.
Even if all you do is reduce the cost of a trip by a factor of ten, you're going to see big changes.