Great piece. I never really considered how our personal relationship with the automobile, in regards to our self image, would change and make us more prone to accept public transportation.

However I would respectfully like to challenge two of your points if that is okay.

“I know that we must get rid of most cars, and merely computerizing the manipulation of their controls won’t do that. I tweeted my disdain. I scoffed at the silliness of solving an aspect of autos that didn’t need solving.”

I am not sure that self driving vehicles ever were advertised to intended to rid us of cars and their negative impacts to the environment or land use. I believe the aspect of autos that did need a solution was their safety. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over 30,000 annual fatalities due to auto accidents. Roughly one third are due to impaired human drivers. That is not even considering the many injury, some life altering, that also accompany human operated vehicles. This is a problem on par with gun violence that is not really getting national attention. The other problem they are trying to solve is time productivity but I do not feel it is as important.

My next shock came with the realization that the first widespread use of self-driving tech would most likely not be in private passenger cars but rather in the commercial trucking industry. This would have the effect of putting hundreds of thousands of middle class workers out of a job…

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by railroads.

I would like to point out that a freight train is equal to 30 or so freight trucks but with fewer drivers. Trains delivering goods take up trucking jobs nearly as much as self driving trucks would. However trains are better for 1 to 1 network relationships while trucks solve the the many to many relationship plus the last mile problem. Otherwise we would need a rail infrastructure as complex and expansive as our road network. Self driving trucks would basically translate trains onto our roads where they could platoon for the long haul yet deliver at the local level. We already invested in a expensive infrastructure, might as well use it.

Yes it in unfortunate that jobs will be lost. Many jobs will be lost as automation takes off in the near and distance future. The only bright side I see to this is that transportation will be far cheaper. This will help transit! The most expensive asset to any transit agency is not the vehicles or the fuel but the often unionized operators. If transit is automated then governments could afford much more extensive and frequent transit service that makes it more attractive to users. It will enable that multi-modal future you want.

Anyways thanks for putting up with my transportation geekery. Enjoyed your entry, it made me think. I like your vision of the future but I question the necessity of fixed guide way in the presence of self driving technology. But overall thumbs up!