Given the phrase "rush hour" exists in the English language, I think they can only reduce congestion by sharing over the whole day if workplaces are successfully encouraged to shift their starting hours away from the usual 9-5 (or 9-5:30 as it seems to be). This will, of course, also work for human-driven cars.
>workplaces are successfully encouraged to shift their starting hours away from the usual 9-5 (or 9-5:30 as it seems to be).
This could only possibly work for internationally-focused firms, firms that operate around-the-clock, or firms that do not need contact with other firms and contact customers outside business hours. That is a very small subset.
Business hours are excellent for everyone involved in terms of work-life balance and coordinating business. They are not a good thing to sacrifice and it would only be a stopgap measure anyway. If you need to move a ton of people all at once, you need public transportation. BUILD MORE TRAINS
Work life balance is an interesting point I had not considered.
Mainly I was trying to make the point that self-driving cars won't make much difference to this specific problem, but I don't seem to have communicated that very well given the replies.
This is why I think a shift to remote work culture is more likely to be a major reduction of congestion than self-driving vehicles ever could. It's just too bad a remote work culture seems less likely, because it isn't a technical problem but a political/social problem.
