Regulation is far more lax when you have two people in a vehicle. So if you are building a prototype AV network, you build small ones, and only get to the bigger vehicles later when the economies of scale pencil out.

A, cars here in the U.S. are already pretty damn strictly regulated compared to cars in countries like India, Brazil, etc. Higher impact standards. Higher emissions standards. So on and so forth. B, the faster mass transit is adopted, the faster the economies of scale will pencil out.

There are also practical concerns... it takes less metal, ABS, wiring, and physical space to build a 2-seater than a 20-seater.

Per vehicle, yes. Per person? Probably not. The vehicles might be bigger and need more material, but if they hold more people, you get more for your resources. In a very simple way, a miata that gets thirty miles per gallon and seats two people is effectively less efficient than an SUV that can seat six people and gets fifteen miles per gallon. There comes a point in the resource scale where bigger is better.

Finally, large vehicles can only drive on specific roads, and through specific intersections.

Cities are not static. They're built by stone, but they're not etched in stone. Part of the whole process of infrastructure upkeep is that when it comes time to repair roads, intersections, etc., cities look at whether or not the roads to be updated to accommodate for changes. Sidewalks are added or removed, drains are rerouted, roads are widened or narrowed, and on and on. It's a normal thing. It's so normal, these kinds of projects are constantly talked about in my local newspapers. Hell, I can think of four projects that have happened near where I lived in the past decade.

Furthermore, most cities already have buses and bus routes. To service a lot of the new demand, it's as simple as adding more buses. Shit, it seems like the hardest part about expanding bus routes has nothing to do with infrastructure or finances, but politics. Buses are seen as a sign of poverty and if a bus route is coming to your neighborhood, there goes the neighborhood. I've literally seen people fight back against bus route expansions just because they don't want poor people in their neighborhood.

Response to Exhibit C

Which is the argument, that before you even made I thought of, that made me say to veen that chances are autonomous transportation is gonna be tiered just like regular transportation is tiered today.

By the time I am 70 (20 years), we will laugh about how we used to own utility vehicles. The only vehicles people will own will be motorcycles, RVs, and sports cars, because they WANT a toy to play with.

And all of that shit will become more expensive and no one but the rich and leisurely will own them. See "supply and demand." See also "horseback riding."

The only ones driving will be the ones driving for fun.

The rich.