Or if everyone moves towards self-driving taxi's, then the car takes you to work, then takes someone from near there somewhere else, etc, so you're really talking not much more extra driving, but saving tons on building fewer cars, fewer parking lots, and economies of scales for buying gas and maintaining the cars.
In some cities (including Washington DC) the public transit systems offer incentives for staggering your commute times. (Peak/Peak of the Peak/Off-peak fares).
I imagine something similar would crop up with self-driving cars to alleviate the rush hour capacity issues somewhat.
A setup like this should theoretically be able to optimize carpooling so as to minimize that. A smart automated system should be able to figure out how to efficiently cram 3-5 people into every car by optimizing routes.
Of course, in actuality there would be plenty of people who would demand their own private car out of principle.
I think we should get rid of the 9-5 and have staggered times. Different companies start different times of the day... I'm fairly sure theres a group of who like to start at 10, and go home 6, or maybe start at 11.
> I think we should get rid of the 9-5 and have staggered times. Different companies start different times of the day... I'm fairly sure theres a group of who like to start at 10, and go home 6, or maybe start at 11.
It's worth remembering that companies are free to do this already. Most don't, however, because they want to maximise the amount of overlap with other businesses they need to interact with. It also conveniently fits in with other things in family life, such as the kids going to school, or sports, etc.
Businesses are able to afford this luxury of starting exactly when they wish because they are able to externalize the negatives of it... forcing the employees and road providing governments to take up the slack and suffer the costs. If everyone is taking self-driving taxis, it becomes easier for employees to negotiate that travel expense into the pocket of the employer. Costs should be borne by those making the decisions, else the invisible hand can not do productive work and this economic system has much less rational basis for being the one we choose.
