Listed as a drawback: "the autonomous car may encourage the use of single-occupancy vehicles"
I don't agree that's a drawback. When enough cars on the road are autonomous, I'll feel much safer riding in a smaller car. As it is, I want a larger car for the safety of it. People keep saying to me, "I'd never ride a Smart Car - what if a semi hits you?!" And a single-passenger car has a much lower environmental footprint than a mostly empty larger car.
That's a pretty good point which I had not considered. However, I would still maintain that it's a drawback compared to the promotion of mass transit which is already hard enough to sell even though it is often as convenient or more convenient than SOV's in city cores.
Mass transit is unpopular in all but the largest cities in the US because it's seen as the poor person's mode of transport, and the fear that there may be unsavory people on the bus. Mass transit is also tied to a tight schedule. I used to take the city bus to class, and I left my house an hour before I needed to be at class eight miles away, because I had to switch buses and that left me waiting at the second bus stop for half an hour.
A self-driving SOV designed for personal use won't give much advantage over the current model (except maybe fewer accidents), but if it encourages ride sharing and leased autonomous cars, it would be a net saving.
I don't agree that's a drawback. When enough cars on the road are autonomous, I'll feel much safer riding in a smaller car. As it is, I want a larger car for the safety of it. People keep saying to me, "I'd never ride a Smart Car - what if a semi hits you?!" And a single-passenger car has a much lower environmental footprint than a mostly empty larger car.