That is absolutely wrong. I take a train for ~50mins and walk ~10mins. I used to just do the ~10min walk. Work/Life was so much better when I just did the walk. Sure I can read and listen to podcasts and play phone games, but what I'd really like to be doing is be with my wife and son, or really just not in transit.

Self driving will let you do things you can do while sitting down in traffic. Since I get carsick that means stare out the window. Basically, if you can't do it on the bus you can't do it in a self driving car either. With the bus you can talk to a stranger (which can be good or bad...).

A self driving car if anything makes congestion worse: people will send their car back home for free parking thus using much more road space.

I was quite bullish on self driving cars about 5-6 years ago. As time passed by, and venture funding and media optimism seems to be drying out in silicon valley, I've been increasingly thinking level 5 is not going to happen in the next 20-30 years without significant legislative changes (e.g., dedicated roads or some other means of lowering the entropy for self-driving cars).

That's already available today on trains and airplanes. I don't find that time particularly useful for recreation or for working.

Mass transit also plays a huge role. An hour on the train is vastly different than an hour in the car.