...the goal is NOT regular people playing taxi, it’s driverless taxis
Yes, of course it is. That isn't a problem to be solved, it's a way of eliminating the jobs and incomes of people who actually work for a living.
Depends on what angle you’re looking at it from. From the point of view of a company that wants to make money running taxis the cost of licenses and medallions is very much a problem. You’ve got to make sure a driver can make enough money for the $200K they shelled out on the medallion to make sense, which means you’ve got to charge more, and you’re going to price some customers out. That’s a problem.