You can make even larger savings by moving into a dorm tomorrow. Are you neglecting the numbers?
I've seen "hacker houses" try and fail to make dorms. One I went to put three bunk beds in the basement, with 12 people living in the house. They eventually got shut down by the city for violating occupancy laws.
If dorms were legal, more people would use them.
The savings that can be made from living in a tiny box with a shared bathroom instead of a regular American house are extreme and are much bigger than savings from not owning a car. Do you seriously think that will convince people and we will see the death of dedicated housing units in the near future?
See I'd agree with your argument if the savings were small, basically nobody is giving up their car for 10% savings, but these savings are very significant. Car ownership costs are the second biggest expense for most households after rent, and self-driving cars cut this in half.
I can see many households downsizing, and instead of owning 2-3 cars, only owning 1 and replacing those trips with self-driving rideshare fleet vehicles.
Especially for the younger generation - teens today drive far fewer miles than ever, which skews the costs away from car ownership even futher. I predict many will not get their own individual car, they'll just rideshare.
Living in a hostel with a shared bathroom can cut the biggest expense (rent) by more than half.
Would you?
I don't believe you. Run the numbers for me for a private room at a hostel in NYC or SF, and get back to me.