No one is talking about the primary issue cities will face in the new autonomous era: policing and menial fine collection. There isn’t a city in America which doesn’t depend on traffic fines to fund the police and court systems. That system will collapse on itself due to the chain reaction from losing all those initial traffic stops: the traffic stop fine itself, the ancillary fines for contraband recovered during follow up searches during traffic stops.

Beyond just the monetary aspect, modern police theory depends on the traffic stop to provide opportunities to discover more dangerous secondary crimes. What will they do when all those interactions which could lead to further police activities cease to occur? How are police going to confiscate cash from travelers using asset forfeiture? Without those forfeitures, district attorney offices across the nation will be unable to come remotely close to being able to budget their activities. I have my suspicions the autonomous vehicle revolution will be severely slowed due to friction from these forces.

Another non municipal impact will be regional air traffic. If I have to choose between a 4 hour AV ride in my own car from Dallas to Houston where I can do anything other than drive, versus the 3.5 hours of dealing with airports and airlines, well there’s not really a choice there. I could see me choosing to do a 15 hour AV ride over the ass beating of a 6 hour airline experience.