
The End of Driving
Automated Cars, Sharing vs Owning, and the Future of Mobility
- 2nd Edition - September 29, 2025
- Latest edition
- Authors: Bern Grush, John Niles, Andrew Miller
- Language: English
The End of Driving: Automated Cars, Sharing vs Owning, and the Future of Mobility, second edition, examines the complex intersection of vehicle automation, public policy, and soci… Read more

The End of Driving: Automated Cars, Sharing vs Owning, and the Future of Mobility, second edition, examines the complex intersection of vehicle automation, public policy, and social change. It analyzes two competing models for the deployment of driving automation—privately owned, automated, or highly automated vehicles versus on-demand driverless vehicles (robotaxis)—and argues that while robotaxis could offer superior urban mobility, achieving this outcome requires deliberate policy choices. Drawing from early deployments through 2025, this book explores how automated vehicles could advance public interests, including social equity, environmental sustainability, and urban liveability; but only with thoughtful system design and implementation.
This thoroughly updated second edition examines the psychological factors influencing transportation choices that will make private vehicle ownership persist; explores the challenges of roads where human drivers and self-driving vehicles will operate simultaneously; and proposes innovative approaches like flexible on-demand transit and targeted financial incentives to encourage shared mobility. This book introduces new concepts, like zero-car-ownership communities, and changes to urban design centered on access to automated transportation.
Instead of forecasting specific timelines for automated-driving milestones, this book engages in ‘backcasting’, identifying how to achieve a desirable future. The End of Driving: Automated Cars, Sharing vs Owning, and the Future of Mobility makes a compelling case that while private vehicle ownership is likely to remain dominant, a transportation system with greater shared mobility is still possible and preferable. Achieving it, however, will require strategic policy interventions to overcome deeply ingrained behavioral patterns and market forces that favor ownership.
- Offers a workable public transit solution design melding the traditional “acquire-and-operate” mode with the absorption of new technology
- Provides a step-by-step discussion of digital systems designs and effective regulation-by-data approaches needed for a new urban mobility
- Learning aids include case study scenarios, chapter objectives and discussion questions, sidebars, a glossary, and updated exercises for student readers at the end of every chapter
- New to the second edition: entirely new chapters or sections on the important distinctions between robotaxis and automated driver assistance, analysis of why automated vehicle deployment has not achieved early optimistic forecasts, infrastructure requirements supporting scaled-up robotaxi deployment, importance of on-demand automated microtransit in transit territories where fixed route is inefficient, how private fleets can be managed to expand universal urban mobility, developmental progress on vehicle automation deployment in countries around the world, and the steps needed to achieve zero-car ownership in urban zones.
Preface
Introduction
1. Language for automated driving
2. Hype, disillusionment, and reset
3. The broad context of change
4. Behavioral economics, automated driving, and vehicle ownership
5. A challenging transition: two competing markets
6. The road ahead wherever private ownership thrives
7. Barriers to shared use of vehicles
8. Matters of scale
9. Surviving mixed traffic
10. Backcasting: Steps to achieve desired futures
11. Microtransit rising
12. Nudging ride-buying with microsubsidies
13. Automated driving and transit-oriented development
14. The path to zero-car-ownership communities
15. Conclusion and recommendations
Glossary
References
- Edition: 2
- Latest edition
- Published: September 29, 2025
- Language: English
BG
Bern Grush
Bern Grush is Executive Director of the Urban Robotics Foundation and project lead for ISO 4448, a technical standard for public-area mobile robots. With over four decades of experience in transportation innovation, he has founded several technology companies including Skymeter Corporation for road pricing systems and PCI Geomatics for satellite imaging analysis. His current work focuses on deployment standards and regulations for mobile robots in public spaces. He holds degrees in Human Factors Psychology from the University of Toronto and Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
JN
John Niles
John S. Niles is Founder and President of Global Telematics, a Seattle-based research consultancy focused on improving transportation efficiency and effectiveness. As a Research Associate at San Jose State University's Mineta Transportation Institute, he has published studies on transit development, ride sharing, and vehicle automation. He advocates for sustainable personal mobility through non-profit organizations including the Ridesharing Institute and Puget Sound Smarter Transit. Life-long learning beyond his studies at MIT (S.B.) and Carnegie Mellon University (M.S.) have recently focused him on defining the strategic choices available for public transport agencies to expand personal mobility options for all citizens.
AM
Andrew Miller
Andrew Miller, Ph.D., is Principal at Paladin Consulting, researching AI governance and mobility innovation. He has previously worked at Sidewalk Labs (Alphabet/Google), in private consulting, and in transport policy at all levels of government. He is the author of the Substack newsletter Changing Lanes on the future of transport, followed by more than 1,000 subscribers. He holds advanced degrees from Yale and Johns Hopkins Universities.