Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft have made the daily commute a less frustrating part of the day for many. Now a crowd-sourced fleet of 14-passenger vehicles acquired by Ford is promising more. "What Chariot and Ford is looking forward to doing in the next couple of years is to actually make [your commute], believe it or not, the best part of your day," said Ali Vahabzadeh, founder and chief executive officer of Chariot Transit Inc., a Y Combinator-backed startup. At South by SouthWest in Austin, TX, Vahabzadeh claimed that Chariot is reinventing mass-transit by crowd-sourcing new routes in undeserved or overcrowded areas. Vahabzadeh told John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's mobile live streaming studio, that Chariot is using Artificial Intelligence and commuter data to finetune rider experiences on-board.

The car was once a physical embodiment of freedom and liberty, allowing us to drop everything and take to the open road. Today, it's a symbol of oppression -- a mobile prison cell where drivers "do time" as they sit in traffic on their daily commute. Over the next decade, this may change: Self-driving technology will allow passengers to focus their attention on other tasks. That same commute could become a source of great excitement, a private moment in the day for work or pleasure. There are still technological challenges to be overcome before self-driving vehicles can be allowed onto the streets.