Your comment displays the incredible social and economic compartmentalization between the Silicon Valley/tech hubs of the country and everywhere else. Uber is not a viable alternative to vehicle ownership for the majority of places in the country, particularly in poorer and more rural areas, and likely never will be. When you've got to drive 20 miles to reach town, ordering an Uber doubles the time required to get there.
As far as automation goes, in the consumer market, I highly doubt it will be anything more than a rich person's luxury for a good long while, since most people can barely afford a $10k vehicle, let alone a $100k one.
80% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas of at least 2500 people, and 71% live in places of 50,000 or more[1]. So most people don't need to drive 20 miles to reach town.
You're right that Silicon Valley lives in a cocoon, but more than a few occasions where I thought a SV idea or trend was stupid, unaffordable, and unneeded, it turned out that a few years later the entire world had adopted it. I remember thinking who the hell needs a smartphone and who'd pay for that. Then 6 or 7 years later I saw beggars in a third-world country with smartphones. Beggars.
I'm not ready to say that autonomous cars and ride sharing will be the norm in 5 years, but just because there are poor and rural people in middle America doesn't mean it won't happen.
As far as automation goes, in the consumer market, I highly doubt it will be anything more than a rich person's luxury for a good long while, since most people can barely afford a $10k vehicle, let alone a $100k one.