Yeah, I don't know why this article got under my skin - I just deleted another response which was much more dismissive, so I'll try to stay constructive here.

While I think 20+ person capacity vehicles will exist in the world of automation, I think many <8 capacity vehicles will cut down on wait times and manage the load of local traffic - and I think that's ultimately a good thing. I've recently been doing work around food security and nutrition and a lot of issue crop up around families whose sole guardian spends 3+ hours a day commuting - limiting the time they have to find a prepare nutritious food. By coordinating smaller vehicles, a person can strike a balance between cost and efficiency - which I think that market is going to ask for.

As for the culture aspect, I didn't mean to dismiss the culture - I meant more to say I don't think it'll be that big of a battleground as the numbers just aren't there. I don't think legislation will exist to completely remove non-autonomous vehicles in the next 20 years - there's too much infrastructure required for it not to have a substantial impact on the working poor and therefore the economy. But if it does, then I doubt those specialty hobbies will disappear, but instead be treated more like horses. Special autonomous vehicles will exist to transport your hobby car to a designated activity area. The pasttime will look different than it did 100 years ago, but most of the car hobbies we're talking about didn't exist in 1917 either.