And the companies that will finance these fleets and deploy them really really really do not want them be considered as taxis which would bring them under (mostly) municipal taxi regimes.

You can bet that the taxi companies will be all for forcing all self driving cars to have a taxi medallion and a "driver" to ensure that it is safe for the passengers.

It is likely that Uber et al consider their current solution as a market maker to get them into this type of solution. Their app will work just as well for cars with or without drivers. And if cars without drivers are no longer taxis, so much the better from their perspective.

Self driving cars in no way prevent you from being free and using the highway system to move around.

And for many people who cannot drive (too young, too old, disabilities) it makes it possible to do the same without having to hire someone to drive them around.

There are still people who like to smoke in public and other people who would love to be able to drink and drive. Neither of those groups is terribly happy that they don't live in the fifties or sixties. Those of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties are happy that the fifties and sixties are over and that the smokers and drunk drivers are unhappy with life.

People riding horses and bicycles don't usually kill too many people in traffic accidents.

People driving cars kill roughly 30,000 people a year in the US. As soon as a replacement shows up that can reduce that significantly there will be a huge push to implement it quickly. It will take about a for human drivers to get to same place as smokers and drunk drivers are today. Shunned and stigmatized because they make life dangerous and unpleasant for everybody else.

And is more convenient. Book your UHaul on line and the truck drives itself to where you need it. You can fill it up and it will deliver its load to where it is needed (and you don't need to go with it.) Once unloaded it will deliver itself back to UHaul (or its next customer.)

So you save time. And in many instances day or multi day rentals can be reduced in length so can be cheaper. But UHaul probably can keep the vehicle rented out more often so still get more revenue per vehicle.

Also, parking lots can get a lot more efficient. Cars can self park them selves 4-5 deep. Any time one in the middle needs to leave the ones on the outside can just unpark themselves long enough to let it out. So your parking lot density about doubles.

Cheap and ubiquitous Self Driving Cars means that there can be (unlike medallioned taxis that are limited to ensure cash flow for the owners and drivers) as many as needed. You leave for work at 8:00 so you have a standing order, and the car arrives at your front doorstep at 7:55. It drops you off at work and then drives itself to some other customer.

If you really want to own your own, you can even have it parked somewhere else at night (where it can recharge, get serviced, cleaned etc) and have IT arrive at 7:55 to pick you up and drop you at the front door where you work. Then drive to the closest cheap parking and self park itself. Or maybe drive home and take the kids to school first.

Yes, but.... with all the "greenies" also trying to force the food chains into dropping GMO at the same time... it looks like GMO labelling is just a way to make the green agenda that much easier to accomplish.

First we scare people into fearing GMO. Then we force the food to be labelled GMO so that people "will have a choice".

Some choice. Personally I would just buy anything labelled GMO. But I fear that I won't have the choice because the food retailers will have dropped those because of lobbying from the greens.

I'll say. I avoid "organic" labelled products because I know they are a rip off. More money for generally the same or less quality.

Simply avoid organic. It's easy to do. You'll save money!

The only people that won't like this are the companies pushing CurrentC and the scammers stealing credit card numbers.

Its a good thing for both Apple and Android users as it will help push the marketplace towards supporting sane and safe and private credit card transactions.

And how is that working for you....

There is more coal in the ground than we can burn over the next few centuries.

Well China is fast on its way to becoming the wealthiest nation in the world. So lets wait about ten years and then try and convince them to pay for it out of their pocket change.

Its no different than any other dangerous sport.

The death rate for first time climbers on Mount Everest is something like 5-10% (lower now, used to be higher.) People going a second time have a better survival rate but the percentages are still single digits for deaths. And paid guides (Sherpas) get killed every year.

By comparison to adventure space flight, adventure mountain climbing is just a bit cheaper. Do we condemn one and not the other?

How about base jumping? Or even sky diving? A small, but consistent number of planes crash delivering people to the jump point. So adventure sky diving? Do we condemn it as well?

Pretty much any sport we engage in has its dangerous elements and people die all the time (albeit slightly less spectacularly!)

You cannot withhold your finger print.

You can withhold something which is in your mind. E.g. a pin.

Since only one (or two?) of your fingers unlock your phone. Your knowledge of the finger print possibly qualifies as secret knowledge. And multiple attempts will ultimately prevent use of finger prints.

The police would not (I think) be able to force you to disclose. They would be free to instruct you to use a specific finger and hope that it unlocks. But if it fails I don't think they would have any recourse.

So don't use your thumbs or index fingers. Which would be their starting point.

The iPhone does not care what angle you use the finger print scanner at. It recognizes your finger however you put it on the sensor.