Department of Energy Says That Driverless Taxis Could Already Be Cheaper Than Cabs

Today's taxis are driven between three and six times as far annually as a standard passenger car, meaning that most of the cost of operating a taxi is in paying the driver, buying gas, and doing maintenance on the car—the initial cost of the car itself is much less important.
Staggeringly, electric driverless taxis could push greenhouse gas emissions down by 94 percent on a per-vehicle basis (which was the initial purpose of the study), with emissions being completely eliminated if sustainable energy such as solar power is used to recharge them.
The estimated 233,000 taxi drivers out there will need to find new jobs, and taxi companies notoriously have a pretty strong local lobbying presence. Already, cabbie versus Uber tensions have flared up in cities all around the world.