7 ms·

What it’s like to ship yourself overnight on Cabin’s sleep pod bus

60 points by thelinuxkid 9y ago

g00n 9y ago
Trying to think if this would work for me. I don't live there and haven't commuted that type of distance regular enough to warrant this type of expense. But, on trips, I tend to stay alert enough to know what's going on regardless of how hard to try to sleep. I tend to try to drive on trips because I don't trust other people driving. They mention wanting autonomous buses to run that route, but I just got my class B CDL and could see myself making this run every weekend as a job which would be cool.
romanovcode 9y ago
I'm not sure why would someone do this if flying takes way less time and is cheaper.
- josefwasinski 9y ago
  Cost of travel + accomodation. If you are flying there is a need to book a hotel to deliver the same experience of being in LA/SF at 7am refreshed. That is the "free money" in the model, people can exchange sleep in a hotel for a sleep on a bus with pretty much the same outcome.
  - Tepix 9y ago
    Ideally there'd be a place to take a shower where you arrive.
- nkoren 9y ago
  This is intended to replace flying + hotel, which does not take less time or money. Let's say you're in San Francisco and want to be in Santa Monica the whole of the next day. Your options are: 1. Wake up at 3:30am, leave the house at 4, arrive SFO by 5, flight at 6:30, at LAX at 8, get to Santa Monica at 9. You are now completely shattered for the day. 2. Fly at a reasonable hour he night before, and rent a hotel in Santa Monica. You have now spent more money than Cabin. 3. Go to sleep on a bus at a reasonable hour in San Francisco; wake up at a reasonable hour in Santa Monica. You've used less of your waking-time to travel, and have spent less money than getting a hotel.
- codebeaker 9y ago
  Convenience, and comfort factor. If I can take a bus, and sleep 10-12h uninterrupted, it's worth the premium. The alternative is broken travel, lines, TSA harassment, and arriving at your destination a hollow shell of your former self having had the live and soul sucked out of you by incompetence, harmful lighting design and oppressive neon tubes and the brown noise of an aircraft engine sapping your very will to exist.
anotheryou 9y ago
You americans don't have any trains, eh? :) Not exactly the ritz, but does the job: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sleeping+train https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sleeping+train
- fruitcake 9y ago
  There is a sleeper train up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco: https://www.amtrak.com/coast-starlight-train https://www.amtrak.com/coast-starlight-train
  - exDM69 9y ago
    Someone in the comments mentioned that Amtrak's sleeper train travels daytime on the SF to LA stint and the terminals are some way away from the city. So the travel by night advantage is gone. Amtrak's sleeper cars are also quite expensive when I last looked at it as an option for getting from Colorado to San Francisco. The price compared to a seat on the train was 2..3x or more (but it includes food).
    - ubernostrum 9y ago
      In the case of San Francisco it's a bit unfair to knock Amtrak for the location of the terminal, because it's not their fault, it's the fault of geography. San Francisco sits at the tip of a peninsula; for a train to stop in SF -- actually in SF and not Oakland or San Jose -- and also continue on to other locations would require the train to come up the peninsula, make its San Francisco stop, then turn around and go back down the peninsula in order to continue north (up the east side of the Bay) or south to other destinations. Since that would be wasteful, Amtrak doesn't do it; instead they stop in San Jose (where you can switch to Caltrain to run up the peninsula into SF) and Oakland (where you can hop on BART or a ferry to cross the Bay into SF).
      - nkoren 9y ago
        Engineering can easily trump Geography in this case: you could just tunnel under the Golden Gate and keep going north. This would be a utterly trivial compared to something like the Seikan Tunnel[1]. Just to be clear: not knocking Amtrak here. They're virtually budget-less, for the most part disallowed from owning or even maintaining their own infrastructure, so building new infrastructure would be completely beyond the Pale. Not knocking Amtrak at all -- it's America's collective ability to get its infrastructure act together that is just sad. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel
apendleton 9y ago
Not sure I'd really want to get where I was going with bed-head and no access to a shower. Other than that, seems like a great idea. Maybe they could work out a cross-promotion or voucher or something that would let people use the showers/locker room at a gym at the destination?
- calbear81 9y ago
  Actually, you wouldn't need any of that at the destination which is Santa Monica pier. You get out in the LA sunshine, walk down the steps to the beach and take a dip in the Pacific. When you're done, rinse off in one of the public beach showers and you'll be dry in a jiffy.
dewey 9y ago
I haven't used Cabin but a lot of other bus companies (Megabus, Greyhound, Flixbux,...) and trains with sleeping compartments and I imagine the bus to be a lot harder to sleep on (vibrations, breaking, highway noise,...) than a train on fixed tracks.
- nkoren 9y ago
  Have you ridden trains in America? I've travelled almost every Amtrak route across the country. In a country that properly maintains its rail infrastructure, Cabin will definitely lose much of its competitive advantage. In America, however...
  - dewey 9y ago
    Only used trains in Europe so far hence why my impression of trains is probably a bit biased...
    - InitialLastName 9y ago
      Not biased, you just have an impression of trains in systems that are well-funded as a public service. Come to America to experience the opposite.
- dageshi 9y ago
  I've done sleeper buses/trains in south east asia/China and my impression was you actually get used to it fairly easily. The trains were generally better simply because the beds were bigger, but I'd definitely take a "sleeper" bus over a regular sit down bus any time, lying down even if it's a bit cramped is always more comfortable than sitting up.
- hasteur 9y ago
  Have you ever taken a Greyhound? Granted I have a n=1 experience, however a Bus leaving Denver (with a final destination of Dallas) leaved much to be desired. The route-through method means that you'll stop about once every hour for 15~20 minutes for on-off and snacks/restroom. If you're still somewhat wakeful these stops are just at the twilight phase and you don't get truly restful sleep.
baybal2 9y ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ooldezaZgU0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ooldezaZgU0 ...
atemerev 9y ago
If only we'd had similar capsules on transcontinental flights — now, that would be something. Otherwise, it is just a bus serving two points, no more exciting than a sleeping car in a train. Properly sleeping on a flight, on the other hand, feels like luxury.
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  They do, if you fly first class. You just have to spend several thousand dollars on a ticket. Air New Zealand also offers skycouch (https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/economy-skycouch https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/economy-skycouch), which is similar and cheaper, but really is only worth it if you're traveling with your partner or someone else you feel comfortable spooning for an entire flight.
  - atemerev 9y ago
    Capsules are arranged differently — they can be stacked together vertically, and probably be offered at least for the price of business class seats. (If the weight is a great concern, and it is, and capsules are too heavy — hammocks can also be an option).
    - majewsky 9y ago
      > hammocks Hammocks with seatbelts!?
      - gargravarr 9y ago
        If they're anchored correctly, you'd probably be quite safe in a hammock during an emergency landing, in a relative sense - being suspended would absorb a lot of the energy. But agreed, it does seem pretty silly and probably wouldn't feel very safe!!
      - atemerev 9y ago
        Why not? And hammocks themselves can be anchored with teared energy absorber like used in via ferrata mountain climbing — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata#Energy_absorber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata#Energy_absorber . This will make the construction much safer than a single two-point seatbelt. Going to the restroom might prove to be somewhat challenging, though...
toomanybeersies 9y ago
That's a very expensive sleeper bus. I took an 8 hour sleeper bus here in New Zealand, including free wifi (which you don't even need, you're sleeping), and it cost me NZ$30 (US$22), including luggage. The same thing in Vietnam cost me about $10, but had the problem that the beds were Vietnamese sized, which for a European wasn't super comfortable. Sure, they weren't quite as fancy, but it really doesn't matter if you're sleeping, you're asleep. I guess that's the SV markup on everything that's been common in the rest of the world for a long time. They are super convenient though, pick up and drop off in the middle of the city, and accommodation included. Go to sleep, and you wake up at your destination.
nvahalik 9y ago
Looks like the cabins don't have sound barriers... better hope you don't get a snorer on the trip!
- mike-cardwell 9y ago
  Ear plugs?
Tepix 9y ago
I can't wait until we get autonomous driving and can convert our cars into sleep pods. When you're going across the country at a slow pace, the MPG (or MPGe for electric cars) is also going to be fantastic. You'd still need autonomous recharging for an electric car but apparently that's a solved problem as well.

60 points by thelinuxkid 9y ago

g00n 9y ago

Trying to think if this would work for me. I don't live there and haven't commuted that type of distance regular enough to warrant this type of expense. But, on trips, I tend to stay alert enough to know what's going on regardless of how hard to try to sleep. I tend to try to drive on trips because I don't trust other people driving. They mention wanting autonomous buses to run that route, but I just got my class B CDL and could see myself making this run every weekend as a job which would be cool.

romanovcode 9y ago

I'm not sure why would someone do this if flying takes way less time and is cheaper.

josefwasinski 9y ago
Cost of travel + accomodation. If you are flying there is a need to book a hotel to deliver the same experience of being in LA/SF at 7am refreshed. That is the "free money" in the model, people can exchange sleep in a hotel for a sleep on a bus with pretty much the same outcome.
- Tepix 9y ago
  Ideally there'd be a place to take a shower where you arrive.
nkoren 9y ago
This is intended to replace flying + hotel, which does not take less time or money. Let's say you're in San Francisco and want to be in Santa Monica the whole of the next day. Your options are: 1. Wake up at 3:30am, leave the house at 4, arrive SFO by 5, flight at 6:30, at LAX at 8, get to Santa Monica at 9. You are now completely shattered for the day. 2. Fly at a reasonable hour he night before, and rent a hotel in Santa Monica. You have now spent more money than Cabin. 3. Go to sleep on a bus at a reasonable hour in San Francisco; wake up at a reasonable hour in Santa Monica. You've used less of your waking-time to travel, and have spent less money than getting a hotel.
codebeaker 9y ago
Convenience, and comfort factor. If I can take a bus, and sleep 10-12h uninterrupted, it's worth the premium. The alternative is broken travel, lines, TSA harassment, and arriving at your destination a hollow shell of your former self having had the live and soul sucked out of you by incompetence, harmful lighting design and oppressive neon tubes and the brown noise of an aircraft engine sapping your very will to exist.

anotheryou 9y ago

You americans don't have any trains, eh? :) Not exactly the ritz, but does the job: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sleeping+train https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sleeping+train

fruitcake 9y ago
There is a sleeper train up the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco: https://www.amtrak.com/coast-starlight-train https://www.amtrak.com/coast-starlight-train
- exDM69 9y ago
  Someone in the comments mentioned that Amtrak's sleeper train travels daytime on the SF to LA stint and the terminals are some way away from the city. So the travel by night advantage is gone. Amtrak's sleeper cars are also quite expensive when I last looked at it as an option for getting from Colorado to San Francisco. The price compared to a seat on the train was 2..3x or more (but it includes food).
  - ubernostrum 9y ago
    In the case of San Francisco it's a bit unfair to knock Amtrak for the location of the terminal, because it's not their fault, it's the fault of geography. San Francisco sits at the tip of a peninsula; for a train to stop in SF -- actually in SF and not Oakland or San Jose -- and also continue on to other locations would require the train to come up the peninsula, make its San Francisco stop, then turn around and go back down the peninsula in order to continue north (up the east side of the Bay) or south to other destinations. Since that would be wasteful, Amtrak doesn't do it; instead they stop in San Jose (where you can switch to Caltrain to run up the peninsula into SF) and Oakland (where you can hop on BART or a ferry to cross the Bay into SF).
    - nkoren 9y ago
      Engineering can easily trump Geography in this case: you could just tunnel under the Golden Gate and keep going north. This would be a utterly trivial compared to something like the Seikan Tunnel[1]. Just to be clear: not knocking Amtrak here. They're virtually budget-less, for the most part disallowed from owning or even maintaining their own infrastructure, so building new infrastructure would be completely beyond the Pale. Not knocking Amtrak at all -- it's America's collective ability to get its infrastructure act together that is just sad. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel

apendleton 9y ago

Not sure I'd really want to get where I was going with bed-head and no access to a shower. Other than that, seems like a great idea. Maybe they could work out a cross-promotion or voucher or something that would let people use the showers/locker room at a gym at the destination?

calbear81 9y ago
Actually, you wouldn't need any of that at the destination which is Santa Monica pier. You get out in the LA sunshine, walk down the steps to the beach and take a dip in the Pacific. When you're done, rinse off in one of the public beach showers and you'll be dry in a jiffy.

dewey 9y ago

I haven't used Cabin but a lot of other bus companies (Megabus, Greyhound, Flixbux,...) and trains with sleeping compartments and I imagine the bus to be a lot harder to sleep on (vibrations, breaking, highway noise,...) than a train on fixed tracks.

nkoren 9y ago
Have you ridden trains in America? I've travelled almost every Amtrak route across the country. In a country that properly maintains its rail infrastructure, Cabin will definitely lose much of its competitive advantage. In America, however...
- dewey 9y ago
  Only used trains in Europe so far hence why my impression of trains is probably a bit biased...
  - InitialLastName 9y ago
    Not biased, you just have an impression of trains in systems that are well-funded as a public service. Come to America to experience the opposite.
dageshi 9y ago
I've done sleeper buses/trains in south east asia/China and my impression was you actually get used to it fairly easily. The trains were generally better simply because the beds were bigger, but I'd definitely take a "sleeper" bus over a regular sit down bus any time, lying down even if it's a bit cramped is always more comfortable than sitting up.
hasteur 9y ago
Have you ever taken a Greyhound? Granted I have a n=1 experience, however a Bus leaving Denver (with a final destination of Dallas) leaved much to be desired. The route-through method means that you'll stop about once every hour for 15~20 minutes for on-off and snacks/restroom. If you're still somewhat wakeful these stops are just at the twilight phase and you don't get truly restful sleep.

baybal2 9y ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ooldezaZgU0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ooldezaZgU0 ...

atemerev 9y ago

If only we'd had similar capsules on transcontinental flights — now, that would be something. Otherwise, it is just a bus serving two points, no more exciting than a sleeping car in a train. Properly sleeping on a flight, on the other hand, feels like luxury.

toomanybeersies 9y ago
They do, if you fly first class. You just have to spend several thousand dollars on a ticket. Air New Zealand also offers skycouch (https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/economy-skycouch https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/economy-skycouch), which is similar and cheaper, but really is only worth it if you're traveling with your partner or someone else you feel comfortable spooning for an entire flight.
- atemerev 9y ago
  Capsules are arranged differently — they can be stacked together vertically, and probably be offered at least for the price of business class seats. (If the weight is a great concern, and it is, and capsules are too heavy — hammocks can also be an option).
  - majewsky 9y ago
    > hammocks Hammocks with seatbelts!?
    - gargravarr 9y ago
      If they're anchored correctly, you'd probably be quite safe in a hammock during an emergency landing, in a relative sense - being suspended would absorb a lot of the energy. But agreed, it does seem pretty silly and probably wouldn't feel very safe!!
    - atemerev 9y ago
      Why not? And hammocks themselves can be anchored with teared energy absorber like used in via ferrata mountain climbing — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata#Energy_absorber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_ferrata#Energy_absorber . This will make the construction much safer than a single two-point seatbelt. Going to the restroom might prove to be somewhat challenging, though...

toomanybeersies 9y ago

That's a very expensive sleeper bus. I took an 8 hour sleeper bus here in New Zealand, including free wifi (which you don't even need, you're sleeping), and it cost me NZ$30 (US$22), including luggage. The same thing in Vietnam cost me about $10, but had the problem that the beds were Vietnamese sized, which for a European wasn't super comfortable. Sure, they weren't quite as fancy, but it really doesn't matter if you're sleeping, you're asleep. I guess that's the SV markup on everything that's been common in the rest of the world for a long time. They are super convenient though, pick up and drop off in the middle of the city, and accommodation included. Go to sleep, and you wake up at your destination.

nvahalik 9y ago

Looks like the cabins don't have sound barriers... better hope you don't get a snorer on the trip!

mike-cardwell 9y ago
Ear plugs?

Tepix 9y ago

I can't wait until we get autonomous driving and can convert our cars into sleep pods. When you're going across the country at a slow pace, the MPG (or MPGe for electric cars) is also going to be fantastic. You'd still need autonomous recharging for an electric car but apparently that's a solved problem as well.