We already have "self-driving cars", as well as "self-driving transport pods" that can do all of the things that you describe. Assuming, that is, that you widen the definition of "self-driving" to include having a human being at the steering wheel.
Self-driving cars would make my commute wonderful, but won't be materially different than having a good bus route. The only real difference I can see autonomous vehicles making is to remove a certain class of jobs and creating another class of jobs.
Likewise, you could hire a "generic bipedal utility robot" pretty easily today. It's expensive, but that's mostly a political problem. (For the humor-impaired, that last clause was a joke.)
> "Self-driving cars ... won't be materially different than having a good bus route."
By this definition a cell phone is not materially different than having a personal land-line available regardless of where you live, work, eat, play, etc. That seems like a fairly silly thing to say when you compare the two. One because it points out the absurdity of the notion of perfect coverage/perfect availability of a 'good bus route' and two because there's obviously much more you can do with a cell phone because it's everywhere, that not even a wired phone at every destination could achieve. (e.g. the entirety of pocket computing)
Similarly, you see no societal advance in bringing something only the very wealthy can afford (personal servants) to the middle class? (initially, and then trending down with commoditization)
That's nearly the definition of massive social change: making the quality of life of royalty affordable to the middle class.
Self-driving cars would make my commute wonderful, but won't be materially different than having a good bus route. The only real difference I can see autonomous vehicles making is to remove a certain class of jobs and creating another class of jobs.
Likewise, you could hire a "generic bipedal utility robot" pretty easily today. It's expensive, but that's mostly a political problem. (For the humor-impaired, that last clause was a joke.)