1) How is it not going to cover the costs? How do you think a regular taxi turns a profit? Is there some magic involved in the process? The automated driver can be thought of as a taxi driver that doesn't take a salary. If the car has to travel 30km to pick up a fare, and it's not economic to do so, it won't. It's not like algorithms won't be taking care of this.
2) It is prohibitively expensive to catch a cab each time, it would cost close to half my salary. Where peak times last 3-4 hours it just means the load is already spread/balanced somewhat, all those commuters are not needing a car for the full 3-4 hours. The average is probably closer to 45 minutes (at a guess). The exact time (30 minutes, 4 hours) is not important, I think you get the drift, some people are able to offset their hours.
3) Tell me where insurance hasn't come down, after technology has reduced the risk (cost) to the insurer? I would love to hear about this mythical market where insurers set their premium based on something other than risk, and don't have to worry about competition. That insurance premiums have gone up, has nothing to do with technology - they go up to cover the insurers costs. If something has put up their costs, then we're talking about something entirely different from technology that has lowered risk of accidents.
