DRIVERLESS TAXIS? OF COURSE; DRIVERLESS TAXIS ONLY? PROBABLY NOT

Apparently some interest groups have seized on the prospect of autonomous vehicles taking over personal transportation to propose that, in the future, private cars should be banned from dense urban areas.  The concept is that fleets of vehicles will be owned by transportation service providers, who will sell transportation to individuals.  In other words, all vehicles will be (driverless) taxis, at least in urban areas.
The idea that it will make economic sense to hire a vehicle when you need one, rather than own one, is plausible.  I know people who have lived that way in New York and San Francisco.  Banning private vehicles from those cities, however, is a much bigger leap, and one that I don’t think will ever happen, no matter how much certain interest groups wish it could be so.