Driverless cars could become a reality in five years, and will profoundly affect real estate within eight or nine years. A few possibilities:

• Roughly 15 to 20% of your living space constructed in the average home is devoted to the garage
• Each urban area will have a hub, but it won’t be in the expensive part of town — it will be in the cheaper part of town, right off the freeway
• Fewer parking lots. In 2016, in the D.C. area, commercial underground parking garages added 10-12% to the cost of office construction. In residences, each additional parking space increased the cost of development per unit by 25%. Driverless cars could make these parking lots a relic of the past
• There are 125,000 gas stations in the United States in prime real estate, you won’t need those anymore