P2P car sharing. Self-driving cars would enable mobility players to reposition vehicles optimally, allowing smaller fleets to provide adequate coverage and reducing the fixed cost base. Autonomy would also let companies target different user segments via smaller differentiated fleets of vehicles. Vehicle self-parking capabilities could reduce inner-city congestion (for instance, by self-parking in less densely populated areas). These inherent benefits could make car sharing more acceptable to local governments and would likely also increase customer use of the service.
Eliminating the cost for the driver is the unique benefit offered by autonomous vehicles. Roughly 45 percent of the costs of operating an e-hailing vehicle relate to the driver; taking him or her out the equation offers early adopters a huge competitive advantage.