A new book suggests that autonomous cars will not only cart us around, but run our errands for us when we’re not even on board. This weekend, Engadget took a look at that, considering all the things we use our cars for that have nothing to do with going from point A to point B, and asking if shared cars are realistic for everyone.

“Do any of these people have kids?” writes columnist Andrew Tarantola. “Have they seen how much equipment, junk, and random stuff hauling around a human child generates? Have they thought about the logistics of moving all that stuff from car to car? No, of course they haven’t. Half the reason for having a car is that it is a mobile base for you and all the stuff you don’t know where else to put.”

“A car isn’t just a transportation device,” he continues. “It’s also a space. A location. A car is one of the few things that can be a means to a location and an independent location itself.”

There’s more to read and think about in the article, here. For more on what AVs might really mean to us, see what #IPI2019 keynoter Larry Burns, PhD., had to say in our interview.