You seem to assume there is unmet demand that you can meet cheaper with automation than with human drivers. I agree there may be unmet demand but I don't see you get automation to be cheaper than a $10 an hour cab driver. I mean if automation was cheap and easy then our factories would all be automated before something quixotic like a car. It is frankly absurd.
Well, for one thing, I don't want anyone in populated parts of the US to live on $10 an hour, not even a cab driver. What happens when we double that? Cost of living goes up over time, but cost of technology goes down. When do we reach the tipping point? Have we already?
If wages go up to $20 an hour, then maybe there is general inflation and robotics goes up to $200 an hour. In the world today we have cheap labor and expensive energy. That is why automation is not replacing humans. Look into the history of the British industrial revolution.
I have probably been in far more American factories than you. Obviously I am not going to answer your question directly because I have an interest in protecting my career or privacy but in my extensive experience in mamufacturing many things that you might think could be automated are not because it is still cheaper or more effective to pay a worker $15-25 an hour than to spend $15,000 on automation that doesn't work right half the time.
Here is the reality that self driving will confront:
cost effective, reliable, competitive automation is hard, even for seemingly closed mundane taskes like palatising products.
