The introduction of AVs is expected to bring about systemic changes in the way urban mobility problems are framed and solved. At the current stage of deployment where AVs are not yet widely available in most cities, systemic changes such as induced demand and reallocation of resources are not yet a concern.
While a traditional ride-hailing service can possibly have complete information about the observed real-time demand patterns, such a platform does not have control over the supply of vehicles. Recent literature has focused on quantifying what levels of information about the demand, if made available to the resource providers (in this case, the drivers), will lead to what levels of profits. However, in the case of the AV company running the ride-hailing service has complete information about the observed demand, while also having complete control over the supply of AVs. This means that the AV company can optimize the supply of AVs to match the demand, and can do so in a way that is not possible for a traditional ride-hailing service.
People have also suggested the use of AVs as a moving hotel - start out in San Francisco, book a ride to San Jose, add a stope in Mountain View, and the final destination in Presidio, and bam - you have a place to sleep for $300.