I totally agree with beefield, and like the idea of banning cars, however you're wrong about the tech cost. The only tech needed is a computer and some sensors, and computers aren't exactly expensive these days. The Tesla model S already has a fair amount of self-driving tech, and it costs well under $100k. Cameras aren't exactly expensive either; the big question mark is LIDAR, but some self-driving companies seem to be eschewing that in favor of pure-camera driving (though I really question if that's a good idea because LIDAR isn't affected by weather as much).
The bottom line is that the extra tech needed to make a car self-driving isn't very expensive, and the hardware costs are continually falling. The big problem is just software, which as we've seen with mobile phones, becomes very cheap when deployed en masse.
You have a point about the 9s, but given that our current (American) society places almost no emphasis on safety, and will happily let you drive around any piece-of-shit car you want in most places regardless of how unsafe it is, I have a very hard time believing society is suddenly going to demand 9-9s reliability from AutoCarOS.
The bottom line is that the extra tech needed to make a car self-driving isn't very expensive, and the hardware costs are continually falling. The big problem is just software, which as we've seen with mobile phones, becomes very cheap when deployed en masse.
You have a point about the 9s, but given that our current (American) society places almost no emphasis on safety, and will happily let you drive around any piece-of-shit car you want in most places regardless of how unsafe it is, I have a very hard time believing society is suddenly going to demand 9-9s reliability from AutoCarOS.