I did automobile styling design for my undergraduate. I grew up in Beijing, where walking could be 10 times faster than driving during rush hours, due to the terrible traffic. So it confused me so much whenever I saw a thousand cars jams on the highway all with passenger seats empty, only one person occupying the whole vehicle. Seems quite wasteful for me.
Self-driving cars were still a relatively new topic in 2016, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to form an intelligent transportation system that basically put people with similar travel needs in the same vehicle while providing private space, to reduce the amount of vehicles on the road.
I always believe that “keep selling something” and “love the feeling of owning new stuff” wouldn't be the most sustainable economic mode.