One of the great hassles of having middle to upper class suburban teenage and tween children is the driving around to soccer, ballet, piano, and other extracurricular activities. Lower class parents who can't afford such extras will see no change with self driving cars. However, lower class parents who can afford extras but don't have the spare transportation capacity to get their children there will benefit.

Some families do very well at together time and others don't. Decreased driving load on the parents may emphasize or demphasize family togetherness.

Certainly, the power to get a child to an activity without parental involvement is incredibly powerful. Determining the best practices for pickup and drop off will need to be figured out, as will security practices to mitigate kidnapping concerns. Self driving cars won't be deployed everywhere at once so there's a decade or so to experiment.

For the more paranoid parent, the ability to know where a child is at any time will offer peace of mind. Further, the knowledge that a car can be dispatched effortlessly for a teen in a compromised situation will also be helpful. Sure, there will be the horror stories of overbearing helicopter parents who misuse the information provided by a self driving car but as now, these kinds of parents are the exception rather than the rule.

Ownership Models

My guess is that in the suburbs, small communal car businesses will pop up, kind of like apartment management companies. A normal human owns the car but puts it under management of the management company. The management company handles scheduling and maintenance for a fee or cut of the renter fees.

In larger cities, I think Uber or Uber-like models will prevail. What I'd love to see but doubt will happen is if instead of Uber buying a giant fleet of self-driving cars, they continue to utilize the self-driving cars owned by former drivers. Thus, "ownership of the means of production" remains in the hands of non-traditional capitalists instead of the already crazy rich. Then a driver can buy other self-driving cars and increase their income without selling their time.

One of the great hassles of having middle to upper class suburban teenage and tween children is the driving around to soccer, ballet, piano, and other extracurricular activities. Lower class parents who can't afford such extras will see no change with self driving cars. However, lower class parents who can afford extras but don't have the spare transportation capacity to get their children there will benefit.

Some families do very well at together time and others don't. Decreased driving load on the parents may emphasize or demphasize family togetherness.

Certainly, the power to get a child to an activity without parental involvement is incredibly powerful. Determining the best practices for pickup and drop off will need to be figured out, as will security practices to mitigate kidnapping concerns. Self driving cars won't be deployed everywhere at once so there's a decade or so to experiment.

For the more paranoid parent, the ability to know where a child is at any time will offer peace of mind. Further, the knowledge that a car can be dispatched effortlessly for a teen in a compromised situation will also be helpful. Sure, there will be the horror stories of overbearing helicopter parents who misuse the information provided by a self driving car but as now, these kinds of parents are the exception rather than the rule.

Security Concerns

In 2015, the trend known as "Internet of Things" is pushing ever greater amounts of automation and intelligence into every day objects. Lightbulbs, thermostats, cars, everything...which is great for convenience but as of yet security doesn't appear to be big concern. Unless security is addressed then self-driving cars are going to be susceptible to hijacking or snooping.

Ownership Models

My guess is that in the suburbs, small communal car businesses will pop up, kind of like apartment management companies. A normal human owns the car but puts it under management of the management company. The management company handles scheduling and maintenance for a fee or cut of the renter fees.

In larger cities, I think Uber or Uber-like models will prevail. What I'd love to see but doubt will happen is if instead of Uber buying a giant fleet of self-driving cars, they continue to utilize the self-driving cars owned by former drivers. Thus, "ownership of the means of production" remains in the hands of non-traditional capitalists instead of the already crazy rich. Then a driver can buy other self-driving cars and increase their income without selling their time.

One of the great hassles of having middle to upper class suburban teenage and tween children is the driving around to soccer, ballet, piano, and other extracurricular activities. Lower class parents who can't afford such extras will see no change with self driving cars. However, lower class parents who can afford extras but don't have the spare transportation capacity to get their children there will benefit.

Some families do very well at together time and others don't. Decreased driving load on the parents may emphasize or demphasize family togetherness.

Certainly, the power to get a child to an activity without parental involvement is incredibly powerful. Determining the best practices for pickup and drop off will need to be figured out, as will security practices to mitigate kidnapping concerns. Self driving cars won't be deployed everywhere at once so there's a decade or so to experiment.

For the more paranoid parent, the ability to know where a child is at any time will offer peace of mind. Further, the knowledge that a car can be dispatched effortlessly for a teen in a compromised situation will also be helpful. Sure, there will be the horror stories of overbearing helicopter parents who misuse the information provided by a self driving car but as now, these kinds of parents are the exception rather than the rule.

One of the great hassles of having middle to upper class suburban teenage and tween children is the driving around to soccer, ballet, piano, and other extracurricular activities. Lower class parents who can't afford such extras will see no change with self driving cars. However, lower class parents who can afford extras but don't have the spare transportation capacity to get their children there will benefit.

Some families do very well at together time and others don't. Decreased driving load on the parents may emphasize or demphasize family togetherness.

Certainly, the power to get a child to an activity without parental involvement is incredibly powerful. Determining the best practices for pickup and drop off will need to be figured out, as will security practices to mitigate kidnapping concerns. Self driving cars won't be deployed everywhere at once so there's a decade or so to experiment.

For the more paranoid parent, the ability to know where a child is at any time will offer peace of mind. Further, the knowledge that a car can be dispatched effortlessly for a teen in a compromised situation will also be helpful. Sure, there will be the horror stories of overbearing helicopter parents who misuse the information provided by a self driving car but as now, these kinds of parents are the exception rather than the rule.

Ownership Models

My guess is that in the suburbs, small communal car businesses will pop up, kind of like apartment management companies. A normal human owns the car but puts it under management of the management company. The management company handles scheduling and maintenance for a fee or cut of the renter fees.

In larger cities, I think Uber or Uber-like models will prevail. What I'd love to see but doubt will happen is if instead of Uber buying a giant fleet of self-driving cars, they continue to utilize the self-driving cars owned by former drivers. Thus, "ownership of the means of production" remains in the hands of non-traditional capitalists instead of the already crazy rich. Then a driver can buy other self-driving cars and increase their income without selling their time.