EVO cars in Vancouver - why Vancouver is going to be the self-driving car mecca.

So I'm visiting my sister-in-law in Vancouver this week.   I love the city.  It has such a unique blend of urban and wilderness in such close proximity.  The downtown area and main street areas are simply fantastic. Then go 15 minutes and you're either in the mountains or in Stanley Park.

We're currently a two-car family.  It's a legacy from when we were both working full time.  Soon my oldest daughter will be driving so we've kept two cars going even though we could probably get by with a single car.  I ride my bike to work most days and could mass transit, Lyft or taxi on the other days.  The cars are both paid for so that's a factor too.   My sister-in-law's family is a single car family and EVO cars (and car2go as well) are a big reason why.  We have Car2Go where we live, but it's not as plentiful or convenient as it is in Vancouver.

Things that are fantastic about EVO to me:

• All the cars are the same - They're all Toyota Prius models with a roof rack
• It seats 4 people which is the biggest upside over the Smart cars from Car2go. 
• There's hundreds of them - they're everywhere you are.
• They're cheap - $0.41 a minute.
• They make reporting issues/problems/gassing up simple 
• They're allowed to park almost anywhere - residential permit-only parking is allowed as a for-instance. You don't have to return it anywhere in particular, you just park it and relinquish control.

It works for a lot of reasons, and some of them are unique to Vancouver.  Geography is one.  The source and destinations for the cars is all within a fairly constrained area so a lot of usage occurs within the zone of operation.  Between the water and the mountains there's a fairly constrained area that people would want to take the vehicles.  In DC where I live, the area is too spread out and sprawling for it to work well.  The local government and businesses committed to the idea.  They changed rules about parking for these vehicles and made other accommodations to make them affordable and convenient.  The local population also wanted it.  These unique constraints are what make it work here.  Not sure it would work the same anywhere else.  I'm sure there are other cities that could make it work, but not as well as it does here.

I think EVO is going to make Vancouver the self-driving car epicenter.  As the self driving technology advances, eventually the cars will be able to come to you, the same way a taxi/Lyft/Uber does today.  This will work in all cities that these services today, but Vancouver will be different and a step ahead and above everyone else.   They don't have to 'sell' the idea to anyone.  Living car-free isn't an absurd idea here. The transition can be gradual. They won't have to go 'all in' on day one. They just start upgrading from their current cars to driverless.  The capital expenditures would be phased in and mostly offset by revenue. 

I started writing this with a full head of steam and now as I'm a few paragraphs in, I'm remembering I'm on vacation and should be relaxing, so I'm going to cut this short and wrap it up, half baked as it is.