Living in the South Wales valleys, I can hand on heart say that I believe public transport will never be good enough to replace the car, not even if there were robotaxis.
You would need enough of these taxis to service pretty much the same number of cars on the road today, plus of course, they would need to be very very cheap and instantly available.
Traveling around the valleys is difficult and time consuming as it is given the geography of the area. Many areas in the UK are the same.
Journeys would be hateful and just as importantly, me and my family would be forced to share transport with others I would rather not share transport with. Now that will sound rather antisocial, but my car is an extension of my home, its my space with my things in it, I can treat it any way I feel, select who I let in it and leave things in it for the next day, week, month etc.
Public transport will help, but city dwellers that think public transport is a solution are deluded.
Also, the comment on living closer to work or suggesting that anyone living in a rural area is at fault for choosing to live a rural life is juat stupid.
Yeah ok, how about all those that live in rural areas move into the cities to help solve the transport problem. It would become like a 3rd world slum, there isn't enough space for the people that live in big cities as it is.
There is also the fact that the car is such a small player in the world's climate change issues when compared with major manufacturing, mining of all sorts of junk nobody needs, like precious gems and metals, and of course as already highlighted, the shipping industry.
Trouble is, all those things are far less visible and taxable than the car, so the car has been sold as thr devil's work. They do need to be cleaner, but they are way down the list of concerns in the real world.