&gt; public transportation<p>because private companies don&#x27;t generally dabble in public infrastructure :)<p>I think at this point it&#x27;s less about cars or electric cars, but more about self-driving cars(that happen to be electric).  In the U.S. at least, we have a MASSIVE roadway infrastructure that&#x27;s not going anywhere for a long time. Utilizing that probably looks like a much easier path to automated transportation than does building up the rather sparse network of railways.