Addison Lee think they will have a self driving taxi in 2 years. When I asked my brother in law (who works in the field) he laughed and said level 5 autonomy is many years away.
Currently, personal car usership is limited to people who can drive, and who can afford to hire or own/insure/tax a car. As taxi prices come down (and self driving cars are essentially automated taxis), that will open up car usership to many more people, thus increasing the number of cars on the road. I find it hard to believe that current car owners will switch to a self driving taxi. Having your own car means you can fill it with your own junk (useful with kids etc), and many people use them as status symbols. Price doesn't really come into it - just because a self driving tax will be cheaper than owning a Focus doesn't mean that an Audi driver is going to want to give up their 4 ringed badge of honour err...
Electric cars are the near future, if the battery supply problems can be sorted. You can order a Hyundai Kona with a 300 mile summer range for around £30k now (delivery next year sometime). The only parts of the reviews that a 2016 Tesla Model S comes ahead of it is in speed (irrelevant) and charging infrastructure (and with 300 miles, how much do you need?).
I think the technology for fully autonomous vehicles isn't that far off. Unfortunately the level 10 issues of government regulation are decades away. Especially in the UK, which has decided to devote all legal and parliamentary time to a pointless exercise of of self harm... The legal hurdles, the approval, the harmonisation of regulations etc... are going to be crazy. That is what is going to be what holds fully auto autos up.
I was talking about this subject with a friend recently, he commented that one of the things he uses his car for is a bit like a handbag. He has everything in it, using it for storage as much as mobility. This is lost if we have communal hailed auto autos.
One thing that can help in the short term is car share schemes like greenwheels, zip car, etc... For many, who live places where pubic transport works, where they can't easily park, being able to use a car on the few days they need one, can really help. For me I an hire a car for one weekend every month, for less than I could insure a car for, and every car I hire will be pretty new, well maintained, and I don't have to worry about it's upkeep, just return it at the end of the hire.
This doesn't solve the problem that those of us who have good pubic transport and no parking are a very small minority.
Even with auto autos available for cheap, we still need to fix public transport, and we should start by making it so it's purpose is to transport the public, not to make a profit.
J