This might become a great transition technology. But leaves many problems unsolved:
1. All the issues surrounding fuel-burning engines OR all the issues surrounding huge and expensive batteries.
2. An inherent lack of energy efficiency. The payload/car-weight ratio is typically 1/10 or worse.
3. Cars are very expensive, they take a lot of space and require roads that take even more space.
4. Cars are not safe.
Driverless cars really only solve (4) and have small advantages in terms of fuel efficiency and congestion.
A network of Driverless taxis should be much cheaper than owning a car, since these cars will be utilized heavily throughout the day. An even better approach would be an automatically dispatched shared-taxi system that would group passengers that want to go to close destinations.
I wonder why there isn't more effort directed towards Personal-Rapid-Transport system. i.e.small electric carts on dedicated lanes (or lines, or rails), with low weight and no battery. Like a packet-switched version of the train system. Such systems can be highly automatic, very energy-efficient and provide convenient rides relatively cheaply. It looks like we have had all the technology required to do it for at least 30 years. It seems that the only thing stopping this type of technology from being developed is that it requires someone with a lot of capital and guts who's not afraid of dealing with a regulatory nightmare. Unfortunately there aren't that many Elon Musks out there.
Here are some specialized PRT systems in use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit#Existing...