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German City Builds Solar Power Sleeping Pods to Keep Its Homeless Warm

24 points by rmason 6y ago

youmaylike 6y ago
https://williamgibson.fandom.com/wiki/Cheap_Hotel https://williamgibson.fandom.com/wiki/Cheap_Hotel reminds me of Neuromancer "coffins"
- joezydeco 6y ago
  Gibson based that off of capsule (or "coffin") hotels in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel
JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Price per bed has to be astronomical. Definitely a low-yield 'solution'.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- rmason 6y ago
  Perhaps compared to a homeless shelter. But a percentage of the homeless hate shelters and will not use them. In Michigan every year when it gets down to zero they find guys frozen to death in a doorway. I think in volume the cost can come down. As nice as the idea of solar is if you remove it and just plug into the city mains the cost of producing the units can come down. Right now the demand is there or the governments wouldn't be building them. So you have a potential startup idea that is already at product-market-fit.
  - aaron695 6y ago
    I think the solar panel is a good example of the lack of forward thinking / not caring about the people who would use it / PR. But the costs are not the shelter itself. > Right now the demand is there or the governments wouldn't be building them. No, it's a pilot that ticks boxes, not to say it won't work, but you can't tell if it is a working system. How do you clean them? How do you have security? What happens when people depend on them but they are broken. I like the fact they can hold two people, that's humane. But will society accept the prostitution it will bring. Will the 'box' change the psychology and cause lethal attacks. The solutions needed here are processes over things. Sometimes things can allow a process change. But you'd need to see a non fluff report to see if this does that. It's hard to see it working when people have tried to do similar with tents and they don't seem to work.

24 points by rmason 6y ago

https://williamgibson.fandom.com/wiki/Cheap_Hotel https://williamgibson.fandom.com/wiki/Cheap_Hotel reminds me of Neuromancer "coffins"

joezydeco 6y ago
Gibson based that off of capsule (or "coffin") hotels in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel

JoeAltmaier 6y ago

Price per bed has to be astronomical. Definitely a low-yield 'solution'.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rmason 6y ago
Perhaps compared to a homeless shelter. But a percentage of the homeless hate shelters and will not use them. In Michigan every year when it gets down to zero they find guys frozen to death in a doorway. I think in volume the cost can come down. As nice as the idea of solar is if you remove it and just plug into the city mains the cost of producing the units can come down. Right now the demand is there or the governments wouldn't be building them. So you have a potential startup idea that is already at product-market-fit.
- aaron695 6y ago
  I think the solar panel is a good example of the lack of forward thinking / not caring about the people who would use it / PR. But the costs are not the shelter itself. > Right now the demand is there or the governments wouldn't be building them. No, it's a pilot that ticks boxes, not to say it won't work, but you can't tell if it is a working system. How do you clean them? How do you have security? What happens when people depend on them but they are broken. I like the fact they can hold two people, that's humane. But will society accept the prostitution it will bring. Will the 'box' change the psychology and cause lethal attacks. The solutions needed here are processes over things. Sometimes things can allow a process change. But you'd need to see a non fluff report to see if this does that. It's hard to see it working when people have tried to do similar with tents and they don't seem to work.