Other than the car driving itself, there's nothing that prevents anyone from doing this right now. Uber can have drivers sitting in Starbucks and McDonald's locations all over the country, just waiting for someone to park at the restaurant next door for lunch. Or an even more feasible scenario would be an Uber driver "borrowing" your car while you're sleeping at night ... to pick passengers up at airports and pick drunks up at bars. But nobody even thinks of doing this sort of thing with their cars, because nobody likes the thought of strangers occupying a vehicle.
And even if you might be inclined to pursue this sort of financial opportunity, I can guarantee you that the first time your car came back with a scratch on the door or a snot on the steering wheel would be the last time you ever let a stranger into it.
“But nobody even thinks of doing this sort of thing with their cars, because nobody likes the thought of strangers occupying a vehicle.”
Hyrecar is doing it right now. Although, I don’t think their business model will work.
The problem is, ride sharing drivers are the loss leader when it comes to taking the depreciation hit on their personal vehicles. The car is not currently the profit center. The app is. And the driver is secondarily. But the car is an expense.
Hyrecar is trying to find a way to make a profit on the car, but it really just adds to the expense that drivers already have if they own a car. I suppose it might help if someone wants to drive for Uber without the commitment of buying a car. But without the depreciation and the amortization of the car costs over time, paying the full, real costs of a car plus profit for the owner up front, makes it unlikely the driver will have anything left over. Might not even make minimum wage. In fact, might even lose money.
Self-driving cars will probably disrupt the ride sharing industry which is currently disrupting mass transportation and taxi service.