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Comment by 6d6b73 | Hacker News Reader

"This doesn't take into account, not even rural areas, but areas that are simply not metropolitan cities. "

The report takes that into consideration that's why it states that "95 percent of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets". Simply, you fit in that 5% left.

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What's going to happen to all the existing cars on the road in the next 8 years?

Mostly scrap. If you're in the market for a vehicle, do you take a gas-powered car with high operational and maintenance cost, or do you buy one with low costs?

Most people won't even buy, as it's cheaper and faster to rely on a self-driving vehicle that picks you up like a taxi would.

Existing cars are about as valuable in those scenarios as a horse and buggy.

Quite a few people were I live own trucks or SUVs. Also, we have buses here, but the only people who ride them are ones without cars. People do take Uber of course, but that's generally when they're not in a state to drive, or they don't have their car in walking distance.

"car in walking distance" is going to seem nonsensical very soon. These changes are predicated on autonomous vehicles.

I have a hard time seeing it be very soon outside of major cities, where "car in walking distance" has always been somewhat nonsensical given the ubiquitous public transportation.

So what is it about being autonomous that will change the game? Because taxis haven't made owning cars obsolete. I know exactly zero people who prefer taking a taxis over owning a car, although a few would be in favor of public train transportation .

It's not going to happen as fast as the report claims, but if it did I can only expect that these cars would be either "recycled" or sold to other countries where electric autonomous cars are still the future.

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