THE FUTURE IS NOW. Lyft, Uber, and Waymo's AVs are already hitting the streets — private and public — as we speak. The robo-taxi revolution is right around the corner, and there's not much anybody can do about it. General Motors has already released a steering-wheel-less car concept, giving us a pretty good look at what the future of the private passenger vehicle could look like.
But autonomous vehicles alone won't make the gridlock go up in a puff of smoke. Careful considerations of road infrastructure, and investments in mass transit are just as much part of that effort. Only then will we be able to look back and think of how many hours we've wasted every week sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.