The selling point would be that you might only need one car instead of two - which would make 25k more attractive than 2x20k. The use of a self-drive car isn't that it drives you to the office, it's that it drives itself back home for your partner to use.

I couldn't agree more. just like hybrids & EVs, it will take some time before the math surrounding that investment would work out. I supposed it would make sense for areas where parking is extremely expensive, it might also make sense for an autonomous towncar/ cab service. I could also see it being adopted by disabled people who would otherwise be barred from driving or DUI repeat offenders. For the rest of us, it will take some time for the investment to catch up with the utility.

The towncar thing would be the killer app. Best way to distribute the capital expense.

"You can get a perfectly good used car for less than that"

In your country. Over here (Uruguay), cars are taxed to hell (the most expensive cars in the world I believe), so an extra U$ 5.000 won't be much of a difference to those who can afford a car.

Same in Singapore or Hong Kong, where cars themselves might be cheap, but license plates or parking spaces are incredibly expensive. An autonomous car should be HUGE in Singapore.

(Used car imports are banned here)

If the additional safety benefits worked well enough, you might find discounts to your insurance premiums covering the $5k cost pretty quickly.