It is easy to see how attractive an autonomous chauffer will be at a fraction of the cost of a human chauffer.
Autonomous cars will not only transport us to a destination, but they will also bring us goods and services when we need them. Imagine, in the middle of cooking for guests and missing an ingredient, or you need supplies for a special project, your personal errand AV can immediately run out and pick something at a local shop without delay while you continue working at home.
As a result, you can think of an autonomous car or mobility service like a personal chauffer at your beck and call for travel or errands like transporting children to school. Of course trusting an autonomous vehicle on an errand to pick up your children at school may just be the ultimate test human autonomous vehicle trust, but with time we should be able to get to that level.
With a median hourly pay for a typical chauffeur in the United States of $16 an hour and assuming a human chauffer is on call 12 hours per day, the annual cost is approximately $70,000. According to MarketWatch gaining efficiency and eliminating driver expense will reduce travel cost per mile from the current rate for taxis of $3.50 per mile to as little as 35 cents for autonomous mobility service. Based on annual mileage of 15,000 miles at the $.35/mile cost, the yearly cost of an autonomous chauffer would be about $5,000, and unlike a human chauffer, it would be available 24 hours a day.
So hopefully in the not too distant future we will need to get ready for more free time as the world of autonomous chauffeurs becomes a reality.
Further reading:
Future Car White Paper
