DegeneratePeasant

When the self-driving car comes around, we need half the vehicles we have now

What do you mean here, is this because individual self-driving vehicles can spend more time on the road by being limited by a human's need for rest?

I think, if you consider that a truck is only good for so many thousands of miles, you'll wear them out quicker by having them on the road longer, so it might be a wash, unless there's something I'm missing.

It seems that ERP software has helped with this within companies. Is there a possibility for an entire supply chain, consisting of several suppliers, distributers and manufacturers, to be on a common ERP system? Maybe that's a pipe dream since companies aren't always privy to share their data.

It will be a gradual change. Sustainability in manufacturing actually has three parts: Ecological, Social, and Financial. You need all three. Focus seems to be on the ecological part, but it also has to make sense moneywise, too.

I think you've got it backwards. For-profit entities are naturally always focused on financial sustainability. People are loudly demanding ecological sustainability because the private sector usually just flat out won't do it, left to its own devices.

You raise some good points. I would hope we can become more efficient with things like rideshare programs, as a way to reduce the carbon footprint of our commutes. Right now you've got all these massive traffic jams full if cars with one person in each of them. Horribly inefficient.

I don't see how that's an argument against a reduction in the total number of vehicles that are on the road at any given time.

It's an argument against a reduction in sales of cars, which is what I thought we were taking about.