[ExI] self driving cars

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 12:43 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> This will help solve homelessness.  Reason: if many people choose to not
> own cars, it frees up a lot of garage space which can be converted to
> apartments.
>
The garage space is already part of the building, so this seems unlikely.
More logical would be to say that less parking is needed, which allows new
construction or redevelopment to have more housing space.

But...see existing zoning laws and parking minimums: this is a legislative
battle that goes back decades.  Regardless of the physical need or lack
thereof, buildings are often legally required to give space for a car
infrastructure, especially in the US, and mere technological improvements
keep running into this in practice, preventing them from achieving what you
are hoping.

Besides, even if you add slightly more housing, the demand keeps growing so
homelessness continues to be an issue.

I have run into this issue while trying to bring some of Silicon Valley's
lessons learned on urbanization to the rapidly growing locale I now find
myself among.  (Just now passing 100K people, on track to exceed 120K by
2035 if historical trends continue, and I don't think they have a single
multi-story parking structure let alone a true high rise - yet.  I'm not
sure if even the Singularity would significantly slow this place's growth,
though some scenarios might accelerate it over at least the next few
decades.)

>
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