Trains? We've been using those for over a century now.

They don't help with last mile.

The technologies mentioned in the article:

lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking (AEB), and blind-spot detection

AI-powered traffic systems

On-demand breathalyzers, smartphone saliva tests, and eye-tracking sensors

“Let’s invent metal boxes with wheels that follow lines on the ground automatically to get you places.”

“Oh, you mean like trains.”

“Ew, no. They’re nothing like trains, these are ‘self driving cars’. They’re fool proof!”

tesla hits someone in a dense fog because it doesn’t have lidar

Queue surprised pikachu.

More trains, trams, bicycle and/or e-scooter rentals, walking (a mile is what, 20 minutes walk at most?)

Wait. Those things rely on visual sensors only?? That moronic! I mean, more so that I originally though. Please tell me that they have them, but this particular one was malfunctioning.

Edit: holy crap. How are these vehicles allowed to operate on public roads??

Trains are great for moving people but only from one designated area to another. With most commuters, they might be all headed to the same city but completely different parts of the city that aren't easy to access. Their homes might all be in the same city but a 45 minute bus ride to the 40 minute train ride to the 20 minute bus ride, which isn't helpful for what might have been a 45 minute commute by car to begin with.

Imagine if all the space between the primary radial arms of trains was filled in with street cars and pedestrian/micromobility centric spaces. Like the problem you are saying cars solve just doesn’t exist in the first place and people can still get around very easily. Even more rural folks can simply drive to the edge of this style of urban design if they need access to something. The reason bus rides are 45 minutes is because of the number of cars they have to put up with. The density of people that can be moved with shockingly good area coverage if cars are not a factor is incredible.

Only one of my cars has just one of those things (2015 Toyota Highlander and it's the blind spot monitor). That aside, all of my vehicles - cars and motorcycles - are paid off. I'm not going into debt just to have nannies yelling at me.

My vehicles are a means to an end. I would absolutely love more public transit, but there is just a single train station about 12 miles from my house, while my work is only 6 miles in the same direction. "You could bike" you might say, which is a fantastic idea. However, 90% of my commute is on a 55mph rural highway with minimal shoulders and zero bike lanes. It's literally a perfect candidate for a bus route and bike lanes, yet there are neither, and I am not risking my life on a bicycle next to 55MPH traffic during commuting hours.

Now tell me how I'm the problem.

This sounds great but isn't really feasible in cities that are already built unfortunately.

Look at the history of transportation in whatever city you’re imagining. Cars took over, but I guarantee that city had the transportation infrastructure you think isn’t feasible. The automobile industry has you brainwashed into thinking cars are the only option, but one just has to look at the history of transportation in any given city to know that that isn’t true.

What a load of fear mongering. Instead of having people take accountability for their actions we should require "safety features" that have a direct correlation to increased distracted driving. Maybe if somebody is killed we should make regulations around driving drunk? Oh yea pretty sure that exists. Problem is we have a bunch of steering wheel holders, hardly anybody is a driver anymore. Would lane assist and auto braking have prevented this? Possibly. But would lane assist not keep him barrel assing down the road doing up through the next intersection where somebody may decide to cross the road? This is not a fix. We have ALWAYS had the "technology" to avoid traffic deaths, problem is most people are selfish self centered pricks with but a ball of lint between their ears.

What does this even mean? Are you claiming all cities had railroad and public transportation hubs prior to cars being invented? I'm brainwashed because I don't believe you can just seize private property and demolish tons of homes and businesses to build more efficient infrastructure in every moderate to large city in the country? Prior to cars existing, most cities were tiny and people didn't commute 50 miles for work every day.

Can you point to the cities elsewhere where this transformation has occurred or where this already existed outside of maybe a handful of examples on the entire planet?

Trains?! For last mile?!
Trams, sure, smaller buses that run more often too. More routes.
Bicycles et al so long as they pay insurance, have a plate and know the traffic rules like everyone else - and preferably put them in their own lanes when possible.
Walking... if you have time and physical ability, but who cares about that, right? It's so cool and eco-friendly to say "just walk 20 minutes".

It's still bad.

My old commute was a 25-30 minute drive. For a while though, I had to do it by public transport.

I'd be walking for less than 10 minutes because both my house and my work were close to the train station. The rest of it was on 4 different trains, but all within one metropolitan area. The changes were no more than 5 minutes each, pretty good really. However, the number of stops and the number of changes killed any progress. The end result was that it took 1h45m to 2h.

Changing a 8hr + 2x30m day into an 8hr + 2x2h day is a significant change in lifestyle. Losing 3hr day means you don't enjoy your evenings, you don't socialise, and life is only work. It's miserable.

On a different job I worked at I could get there with just 1 train. That was about 35 minute drive or 55 minutes by train once you included the walk (again about 10-15 minutes total). Even with that you're asking yourself "Why am I not driving?".

Bicycle insurance and plates? Why? That makes zero sense. We have these for cars because cars are dangerous, not just for funsies. Bicycles don't pose the same danger.

Walking... if you have time and physical ability, but who cares about that, right? It's so cool and eco-friendly to say "just walk 20 minutes".

Yeah it is cool and eco-friendly to walk 20 minutes (assuming one is able-bodied, as you mention.)

Bicycles do pose similar dangers. A cyclists running a red light it the typical example. Forces someone else to swerve and hit a post then what?

The technology isn't great, but rather than implement it, you want us to expect humans to be great.

Cyclists on the whole break traffic laws a lot less than motorists.

Also, I love how your only example of "the dangers of cyclists" involves someone in a car having to react to a cyclist. If everyone is cycling, speeds are low enough to react and typically avoid collisions even if a potential conflict arises. The "forces someone to swerve" phenomenon mostly happens at the speed of motor vehicles.