I'm not sure I can buy in to your skepticism regarding the ownership model of AVs. I don't think people love their cars as much as they love the freedom their cars grant them. The freedom to live wherever they want and still get access to other places in a region - that's liberating! The convenience of being taken from almost any point A to almost any point B is what cars currently offer, and the dangerous task of driving is merely a means to an end.

Currently if you want that service, you need to pay the price. Upfront cost, gas, maintenance, a place to park, and whether one can afford to give their undivided attention to the two tons of steel that you have sent careening down the road all factor into whether someone can afford the perceived freedom a car grants. When I got rid of my car over 10 years ago, it was because the cost of the car outweighed the benefits I was receiving from it. I had to move it every few days if I wasn't using it or if there was a snow emergency, plus my job was on a bus line so I didn't even want to drive since I could relax and read a book on the bus instead (and pay to park in a lot, of course).

Maybe just the idea of having an autonomous vehicle parked strikes me as absurd. The hybrid model of someone owning a car and renting it out as a "taxi" is more plausible, as there's no incentive to just leave a high-value piece of capital just sitting unused on the curb.