>>11618505>But you have bus passes where you can ride all day for a small amountNo one does that. Very few people take public transportation unless they have to because it's terrible in most places, if it exists at all. The fares that they charge reflects their operating costs which will be higher than robo-taxis. The cost of their bus pass also reflects how much they are being used. The only situations where your single fare will be cheaper is if you only take longer routes. The only situation where your bus pass will be cheaper is if you use it more than the average person who also has one. This won't be the case for most people.
>if the bus is uneconomical it's because of low passenger volume meaning that a taxi won't fare much betterRobo-taxis would be a lot better in that situation because they only operate when they are needed and it's much more inefficient to send a bus to pick up a few passengers than to send a car.
>Some of the baggage comes from the simple fact that you don't own it or even have full control over itThat's a selling point, a lot of people would choose not to own a car if given a good alternative. If car ownership isn't cheaper than a robo-taxi, why would you want to do it? You have to deal with costly repairs, insurance payments, going to the DMV, paying for parking, and the list goes on.
>go to /o/ I go there all the time and they don't reflect most people.
>>11618512Protectionism quickly fails when the alternative service is much cheaper and the public demands to use it. Look at what happened with Uber which is now allowed in most cities despite the efforts of the taxi industry. The cost difference between a robo-taxi and a human taxi is so great it's only a matter of time until lobbying against fails. Very few politicians would want to risk angering the public to appease human drivers.
