Cars have too many color and trim options...thats why driverless cars we don't own will win.
Look out your window, look around next time you're in a parking lot, go to a dealership, etc. Try and find two identical cars...year, make model, color, trim, etc. Incredibly rare...like, exceedingly rare. Ever since Henry Ford allowed you to pick another color outside of black - people have been expressing themselves via their car with trim levels, color, etc - and its mind-bogglingly (to me at least) inefficient from a manufacturing standpoint. Think about the structures and design systems that need to be in place at a plant to allow that? 1,000s if not 10,000s of different configurations...even for like an $18k Jetta. It's nuts. For reference there are...5 iPhone color options, thats it.
So, lets say there were just...4-5 major car manufactures. And each one made just ONE (just one!) model of car - no options, period. And maybe the concept of "model" year went away. And they were designed for maximum manufacturing efficiency, passenger comfort, and fuel (electric!) efficiency. The cost savings to the manufacturers would be...bonkers. I don't have any actual numbers to reference, but I don't think it'd be out of range to see 70% reductions in the cost of manufacturing - maybe more. And! You could assume because they are purchasing orders-of-maginuted more of just one type of leather, one color of paint, etc, etc...that the quality of those parts/pieces would be as high if not even higher than that of an S Class Mercedes due to the scale of purchase... I truly believe we could have S Class level quality and comfort for the cost of a mid-level VW Jetta.
Who cares? This is where it gets interesting...now lets say they're not selling those cars anymore, but are instead, due their new found cost efficiencies, its more profitable for them to sell us "cell phone plan" style to access their cars. $50 for 250 miles a month, $100 for 750 miles a month, etc, etc. Would you ever buy a car again? Would it matter to you if you could get "Ibis" white vs "Arctic Fleck" white on your new Audi S5...when for $100 a month you could be taken wherever you want in something as nice or nicer than an S Class? ...
Man...it kinda sucks. I'm a car guy...like for real into them. But it just seems so obvious yeah? I suppose I'm looking forward to it. Funny thing, it'll happen slowly first...but eventually its going to feel like what Napster did to the music industry. Buckle up!