Volkswagen Shows Off Self-Driving Auto Pilot Technology For Cars

One thing that strikes me as interesting is the possibility for software upgrades in your car to enable more (automated driving) features. Once all of the hardware is in place it seems like a natural progression.

Who's to say that the hardware won't plateau well ahead of social norms, legislation, and software and that we won't end up with an awkward period of automated-ready cars?

The most important feature of driverless cars is in the unexpected results. I can tell my car to pick me up, and suddenly we don't need big parking lots in front of walmart, you can just tell your car to "go find a parking place nearby" and tell it to pick you up when you are ready. Then we figure out I don't need to own a car, just a card to use a given car when I need it, so A car isn't taking up space at my house at night, or at my place of work in the afternoon. We can get by with much fewer cars.

You can use the SUV when you need to move something big and the family, and use a 1 seater when you are commuting to work.