If there was already plentiful parking at your destination then the whole "cruising for parking" discussion is moot anyway, right? The concerns were about congested commutes to denser downtown areas where parking is difficult, or the date night into the city from the suburbs, etc. Difficult/expensive parking disincentivizes car trips there, and shifts them to public transit, ride share, and commuter rail, which are better suited for cities. If you weren't encountering difficulty finding street parking or paying steep garage prices, then of course you wouldn't suddenly be sending your AV on a joyride around town or letting random people use it as car share.

> Or, your car parks in the spot you yourself would park in, the ones building codes require the restaurant to provide.

In that case it sounds like the self-driving doesn't matter and we're no worse off.

I've seen those, but they make a lot of assumptions that I do not think are reasonable. Only time will tell.