It's workable, but there's a problem. The fake-it-til-you-make-it self-driving car companies have unicorn-sized valuations. One that's actually doing it is measured on cost and return on investment. This competes with taxi and van services. You get rid of the driver cost while taking on lots of new costs. On a small scale, it probably loses money.
Navya and Local Motors, with their little slow shuttle vans for airports and such, have this problem.
It seems as if there’s a common assumption that taking out the driver opens up fundamentally different use cases. Even if we assume self-driving cuts costs in half (not obvious), that’s a big drop but is it a fundamentally change how people can use cars drop?
Navya and Local Motors, with their little slow shuttle vans for airports and such, have this problem.