There is definitely some tunnel vision here. Not everyone lives in densely populated urban areas where owning a car is already almost not worth the cost and hassle.
I can't see myself ever owning or time-sharing a self-driving car.
You don't have to drive (leaving you free to do other activities), and you don't have to park / store the vehicle. (Our last hotel charged $65 PER DAY for parking.) Under this new model, parking can quickly become the least productive land use and will start to get much more scarce.
Finally, you likely won't ever own or time-share a self-driving car. They'll be provided by the likes of Google or Uber or Tesla as a utility model.
Will people still drive for the joy of it? Absolutely, but it will become more of a hobby / specialty market, just like private piloting.
But record numbers do, increasing every year particularly in Asia, where most people live.
Some people will always have personal cars, just like some people will always have personal horses. They are both sometimes practical and often fun, if expensive.
"In 1950, one-third of the world’s people lived in cities. Just 50 years later, this proportion has risen to one-half and will continue to grow to two-thirds, or 6 billion people, by 2050. Cities are now home to half of humankind."
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/cities/vita...
The urban areas of the United States for the 2010 Census contain 249,253,271 people, representing 80.7% of the population, and rural areas contain 59,492,276 people, or 19.3% of the population.
Do people like other things as well? Assuming you don't eat, use your laptop, watch a movie, read a book, or play video games currently while you drive, not having to drive so you can do these other things can be appealing. Especially when it's the same braindead commute to/from work every day, day after day.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/14/th...