The TechMobility Podcast
Welcome to The TechMobility Podcast, your ultimate source for authentic insights, news, and perspectives at the nexus of mobility and technology. We're all about REAL FACTS, REAL OPINIONS, and REAL TALK! From personal privacy to space hotels, if it moves or moves you, we're discussing it! Our weekly episodes venture beyond the conventional, offering a unique, unfiltered take on the topics that matter. We're not afraid to color outside the lines, and we believe you'll appreciate our bold approach!
The TechMobility Podcast
e-Bikes for Everybody, Deepfake Reality/Deepfake Fraud, EV Batteries Get Solid, What's a Pod Hotel?
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The mobility landscape is transforming rapidly, with innovations that make clean transportation more accessible to underserved communities. Massachusetts' new e-bike incentive program offers vouchers up to $1,200 for lower-income residents, addressing transportation deserts where public transit is limited and car ownership impossible. These electric-assisted bikes flatten hills and shorten distances without excessive exertion, creating practical mobility solutions for those previously left behind.
Meanwhile, a disturbing technological development threatens our ability to trust what we see online. Real-time deepfake fraud has evolved beyond primitive, easily-spotted fakes to sophisticated live manipulations where scammers can completely transform their appearance and voice during video calls. This technology, now inexpensive and accessible to anyone, enables romance scams, fraudulent vehicle purchases, and corporate infiltration with unprecedented realism. The old wisdom of "believe half of what you see" has given way to a world where visual verification itself is suspect.
On a more promising front, the race to develop solid-state batteries continues with Massachusetts startup Factorial leading the charge. Having already tested their technology in a real-world Mercedes EV, Factorial is working to overcome the technical challenges that have prevented widespread adoption of this revolutionary battery chemistry. Solid-state batteries promise faster charging, greater range, and elimination of fire risks associated with conventional lithium-ion batteries. Though commercial production remains years away, the advances made during this development race will likely yield innovations benefiting industries far beyond electric vehicles.
Want to join the conversation about how technology is reshaping mobility? Call or text our hotline at 872-222-9793 or email talk@techmobilityshow.com to share your thoughts on these transformative developments.
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Welcome to the Tech Mobility Podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester On the docket. Real-time deep-faith fraud is here, the perfect EV battery and introducing Mecco, boston's first and only pod hotel. To add your voice to the conversation, be it to ask a question, share an opinion or even suggest a topic for future discussion, call or text the TechMobility hotline, that number, 872-222-9793. Or you can email the show directly. Talk at techmobilityshow. For those of you who subscribe to Substack, you can find me there too. It's at Ken, the letter C, iowa, i-o-w-a. So Ken, K-E-N-C-I-O-W-A. You can find me there From the Tech Mobility News Desk, me there From the TechMobility News Desk.
Speaker 2:I've said a lot and I'm going to say it again. We are a mobility show and a technology show and I like to talk about being at that intersection because there's so much going on right now that is afoot in both worlds and a lot of time and increasingly the technology, no matter where it's developed, gets related at some point to mobility. It's really cool and it's almost regardless of what it is. I literally could almost always tie it to some mode of transportation, some kind of way. This is one of these. This is in Massachusetts and, yes, it's where I'm from and I do subscribe to the Boston Globe full disclosure, and occasionally I find interesting things. This is one of them.
Speaker 2:The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is launching what they call an e-bike incentive program, and the state is targeting lower-income residents, although cycling advocates are hoping the state eventually expands the program. Now, to be fair, the numbers they're talking is a drop in the bucket. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has 351 cities and towns, over 12 counties, with a population of 5 million people. This is literally a few thousand, but what makes it interesting, what makes it worth talking about? It's an attempt, which is part of a national attempt, to make technology available to people that don't have any other way of travel.
Speaker 2:They may be in a transportation desert. Public transportation may be blocks away, whether it be a bus or a train or a subway. Walking might be prohibited, particularly if you're trying to carry groceries or you've got a family. But you may be in a position where you can't afford a car. Uber is too expensive for you and you do a lot of walking. While walking is great, it has its limits Weather, when you need to haul stuff, things like that.
Speaker 2:What they're looking at and it's not just in Massachusetts, but what they're talking about is electric bikes, which is pretty awesome when you think about it If you're not familiar with how e-bikes really work. It's a pedal bike with electric assist, which means, yes, you can pedal, but if you need help getting up hills, you've got that. Think of it as a hybrid for bikes, where you've got your personal energy with an electric assist. Much the same way, a hybrid has gasoline energy with an electric assist and would come in really handy. Rolling this out, they want it to be a transportation option that would otherwise not be available. Now you say, well, gee, electric bikes, they must be expensive. Well, they are Compared to a regular bike, which could even cost you up to $1,000, these are double that. E-bikes cost an average of two grand to purchase and many cities and several states have begun offering discounts to cut back on road congestion and climate warming emission from cars. Now Massachusetts is rolling out 3,000 vouchers over a six-month period, which can reach up to $1,200 in discounts at participating brick-and-mortar retailers. So they're basically subsidizing people of limited income or lower means to be able to get a bike. Now the beautiful part about the bikes that they're offering they're offering some things called cargo bikes, which takes an e-bike to the next level and actually lets you carry stuff like maybe groceries or another individual or something like that. Those also qualify and that would be a real help. They said we do think it will sell out. Sell out. I anticipate they probably have a waiting list.
Speaker 2:If you're in eastern Massachusetts, which is pretty heavily settled, even when you get outside of Boston, if you go within 50 miles of Massachusetts, it's pretty thickly settled and public transportation is a benefit, particularly now that in the years that I've left the state, traffic in eastern Massachusetts has gone from difficult to impossible. The roads are not wide. I mean they were cow paths 100 years ago, 200 years ago, and they were limited in terms of what they could build, both in infrastructure and available space. So Eastern Massachusetts, you can forget about it. However, walking doesn't lend itself because in those suburbs sidewalks are not consistent or user-friendly all the time. So an e-bike could be the solution when you're trying to get around, when you're outside of or away from public transportation, which is still even in Massachusetts. There's a lot of it, but there's still places where you can't, or the schedule is not user-friendly for what you need to do or you've got errands or doctor's appointments and stuff like that. Initially the state said about 500 vouchers will be equally distributed across five regions of the state and, as I mentioned earlier, can also be used on e-cargo bikes designed to haul children or large loads, and adaptive e-bikes. This is a quote. E-bikes are magic carpets. These things flatten hills, they shorten distances, they allow you to arrive at your destination without big exertion, making them a fundamental choice for performing errands or traveling to work. And that's from Scott Mullen, transportation and man Management Director at Boston-based nonprofit A Better City.
Speaker 2:Not everyone can afford an EV and, as I have lamented many times that right now, the way that EVs work and the availability of public charging and the lack of private charging unless you own a home, makes it, if you're an apartment dweller, owning an EV is difficult, if not downright inconvenient, unless you spend a lot of money and you have one with phenomenal range. We're not there yet, even for me. I am fortunate. As an apartment dweller, I do have EV facilities within three miles of my house. However, it's still inconvenient because it doesn't have any kind of roof or shelter, which means in all weather. I will be out in all weather if I owned an EV, and right now, with the technology being what it is extreme heat and extreme cold, impact range big time. They can fix that and I'm expecting in future years they will, but right now this is where you're at. Well, but right now this is where you're at. So even if you had a vehicle with a range of 300 miles in a cold Iowa winter, if it sat for a couple of days, you could lose 60, 70, 80 of those miles just because it sat in a cold, because you didn't have a garage, you couldn't keep it heated.
Speaker 2:These e-bikes fill the gap for folks who don't own a home, can't afford an EV, have limited choices relative to transportation. This gives these folks an opportunity to participate in clean transportation, get something that will actually be a help to them, because I can't imagine working a service job and having to ride your bike home after working all day usually eight, 10, heaven knows how many hours. An e-bike would be helpful, particularly if there are hills in your commute and particularly if the commute you need to make doesn't happen to go along any convenient bus lines or the hours that you need to work don't coincide with the bus or train schedule. This would be a help. This would be a help. This would be a help. According to Massachusetts, in 2022,. They launched this, ebay launched the beginning of the rebate program to help meet the state's aggressive climate goals to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and add 150,000 electric vehicles to the road by the end of 2024. Yeah, they fell short because there's a lot more work to do.
Speaker 2:We've talked about that. People have tried to criticize me for not talking about that side of it and I've talked about it extensively. If you want to go back, go back about 18 months ago, when I talked about my trip to Chicago in an EV and I talked about the shortcomings and the fact that it added three hours to my five-hour trip and I was still late. And that was with high-speed, available and working EV chargers. What you hear now, what you see, is convincingly faked. Welcome to the age of real-time deepfake fraud. You are listening to the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the main place to be these days, and we are no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Facebook videos, from my latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary of a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Facebook. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to our Facebook page. Social media is the place to be these days. We're no exception. I'm ken chester, the tech mobility show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly instagram videos, from the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:For those of you that listen to podcasts, we have just the one for you. Hi, I'm Ken Chester. Tech Mobility Topics is a podcast where I upload topic-specific videos each week, shorter than a full show. These bite-sized programs are just the thing, particularly if you're interested in a particular topic covered on the weekly radio show, from Apple Podcasts to iHeartRadio and many podcast platforms in between. We got you covered. Just enter Tech Mobility Topics in the search bar, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 3:The new Saab 900. It won Automobile Magazine's Design of the Year. Consumers Digest rated it a Best Buy. Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine called it the best new car in its class, but with a 50% stiffer body. The new 900 is designed to survive much more than the scrutiny of the press. Test drive the Saab 900, a new 900 turbo coupe.
Speaker 2:You would have loved that TV commercial. This is from the late 80s early 90s. It's the Saab 900. And what they showed is a group of five guys come up to the car while an aerator is talking, pick the car up and turn it over, roll it on its roof and then roll it back on its wheels and then, once they've done that, got into the car and drove it away. Now the commercial also gives a disclosure at the bottom that this is an unmodified car, in other words, a regular production car. They did not do anything to it and the point they wanted to make visually is how strong the car is, that, yeah, you could roll it over on its top and then roll it back over and it'll drive away. It's fine, powerful message. Just two bad subs not around anymore, and that's a case of corporate shenanigans when GM bought them and then got caught up in financial hard times back in the recession about 15 years ago, and now SOPS no more. But it was pretty cool. Artificial intelligence and deep fake software it's the perfect marriage of tools and methods that are easily available to secure and use by anybody.
Speaker 2:Needless to say, fraudsters and other bad actors of all stripes have been having a field day, from online romance scams to defrauding car dealers and even the h HR departments of major tech companies. The nightmare is real. This is topic A. It used to be that you could easily spot these scammers. Things didn't add up quite right the speech was a little broken, the video wasn't in sync or looked just a little off. That was then.
Speaker 2:In the last five years, these tools have gotten so increasingly sophisticated. The old folks used to have a saying believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. Nowadays is you can't believe what you see or hear. I've talked about, off and on and down through the last year or so, all sorts of scamming going on. I mean the romance scams have been going on forever. Now it's bad where people can actually disguise themselves in real time and that's the kicker. Before they had to kind of put it together and it was ways you could tell because they had to do it a bit. But the software is so good they can fake you out talking to you in real time and you wouldn't realize that the person you think you're talking to, that you see on your device, is not the person Completely different person who's disguised their look disguised their look disguised, their voice, disguised, their surroundings. And what's scary is, in some cases this stuff is good enough to start to defeat an otherwise fool. The automated process is designed to catch this stuff. In the banking industry they call those tools KYC know your customer and a certain benchmarks and certain things that they do to make sure you are who you say you are when they see you.
Speaker 2:We've talked about in the past about remote vehicle buying and how that has become an issue and the car dealership is ground zero for them. Trying to prove this to the point where car dealers now, even if you're going to buy it at your home, require an in-person visit at least one, because they're finding that looking at the phone and even if everything else checks out don't work, they're still getting fooled and the consequences of them not catching it could be billions, not millions, of dollars. The new scam now, as they're going into business, is they are sending and this is happening. I just read a piece about this. There are legions of South Koreans holing up, masquerading as other people to get jobs legitimate jobs in major companies, with the attempt to defraud them by either getting access to sensitive information and then blackmailing with it, or other, infiltrating to manipulate from within the company. And even if they get found out they've got enough information by that time. They threaten to go public with it unless the company pays them a fee. This is not theory, this is happening right now.
Speaker 2:There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal I just saw it where the writer actually took us through a video that she did, where she showed us how she could disguise, look like somebody different, talk in a different voice, do different things in real time, and then she took us behind the veil to show us what software she used, what images they used, what they ran it through. But here's the kicker that kind of power, that kind of software used to cost a lot of money. It doesn't anymore and in fact some of it is open source, meaning you don't have to pay anything. Doesn't anymore, and in fact some of it is open source, meaning you don't have to pay anything, and it continues to get better and better and better. Let me give an example. I don't want to say innocent, because it really isn't, but here's something. This is a piece from 404 Media. The title is Real-Time, deep Fake Fraud is here and it gives an example and I'm going to read this to you because I want you to get an idea. I'm going to read these paragraphs to you Because I think it explains it. In this one example and I quote At least now, I saw that you're way more gorgeous and beautiful than you were in the photo you sent me.
Speaker 2:An older white man with a graying beard said during a Skype video call he's talking to an elderly woman who appears to be in her car staring at her phone's front-facing camera. She laughs at the compliment. The smiling man keeps going. I think I should send security to keep you safe so no one comes. He says. To that, the woman laughs even more. I'll be okay. She reassures the man.
Speaker 2:But the bearded man, however, doesn't really exist. Instead, he's a real-time deep fake created by a fraudster likely to lure the woman as part of a romance scam and have her send money. Someone filming the interaction captures what is really happening. This is what really was going on. A young black man is sitting in front of a laptop with a webcam, and software is then automatically transforming his appearance to that of a much older white man and feeding that into Skype. All live, live, on the fly, in real time. And this software is now so good that one of the ways that usually you could catch it by them holding things or holding things up your face uh-uh, that doesn't even kick it. This is the reality of fraud today, where scammers are able to digitally manipulate their appearance in real time to match a photo on a driver's license, dating profile or a celebrity Like a chameleon. These scammers, who could be involved in everything from romance scams like the one we just talked about to fraudulent tax refunds, can hide their true appearance with just a laptop and a phone and produce very realistic results, and they're getting to a point where they will be able to fool the best systems that are currently being used by industry to detect them. This actually went into the detail of the software they use. All of it is available. You can get all of it, and I am not talking thousands of dollars either. This is what you need to be aware of. Be careful. Can a Massachusetts startup engineer the perfect EV battery? This is the Tech Mobility Show.
Speaker 2:Do you listen to podcasts? Seems that most people do. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. If you missed any of our weekly episodes on the radio, our podcast is a great way to listen. You can find the Tech Mobility Podcast just about anywhere you can enjoy podcasts. Be sure to follow us from Apple Podcasts, iheart Radio and many platforms in between. We are there. Just enter the Tech Mobility Podcast in the search bar. Wherever you listen to podcasts, social media, it's the place to be, and we're no exception. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Several times a week I post to TikTok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility, technology news and information. I've built quite a library of short videos for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to watch, like and subscribe. That's the Tech Mobility Show on TikTok. Check it out.
Speaker 2:Lithium-ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries this is the chemistry that powers most mobile electrical devices that are not plugged in, from your cell phone to the average ev. The chemistry is actually a metal slurry that comes with a list of downsides, which can include shorting out and causing a thermal runaway, which results in those difficult to extinguish fires you may have seen on social media. But what if a new kind of electric vehicle battery can do away with the bad things of the current batteries? Do it for less money and longer range. This is the goal of a small Massachusetts startup. This is topic B. The name of the company is Factorial. This is topic B. The name of the company is Factorial, and I need to give you full disclosure that both Mercedes and several other automakers have invested in this small company and they're trying to do what Toyota, hyundai and a handful of other companies are attempting to do. They want to develop a safer alternative to lithium ion the way it is now, and it's called solid state.
Speaker 2:We started talking about solid state batteries a number of years ago when Toyota said at the beginning of the decade at the Tokyo Games Olympic Games that they believed at that time that they would have a prototype and that solid-state batteries would be in production by the middle of this decade, and they were talking some phenomenal mileage figures. It was phenomenal. Problem is it's not happening. I'm going to explain why that in a minute. In the case of Factorial, they, to public knowledge, is the first and only battery company developing a solid state alternative to lithium ion that actually has tested their batteries in an EV in real world experience. There's a lot of companies chasing. There's a lot of companies chasing, but right now, to historical knowledge. Best we know, factorial is the only one that actually got it done back in 2023, actually in a Mercedes-Benz, an EQS EV, using their battery.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about why solid-state batteries are not. I mean, you're looking at billions of dollars. There's a lot of companies chasing this right now. So what's the problem? Many startups have produced solid-state battery prototypes, but no American or European carmaker has put one in a production vehicle and proved that the technology could survive the bumps, vibrations and moisture of the street. Or, if they have, they kept a secret and that was up till Factorial did it. Here's when they did it.
Speaker 2:Here's the big problem, because solid-state batteries don't overheat, don't have that kind of problem. They can be charged faster perhaps in as little time as it takes to fill up a car with gasoline, and they're more dense. They pack more energy into a smaller space, reducing weight and increasing range. But the reason why you haven't heard more about solid-state batteries, why you cannot go down and buy an EV with a solid-state battery pack, is because solid-state batteries have one big drawback their battery cells, as engineered right now, are prone to grow spiky irregularities that cause short circuits. Any company that can figure out how to get around that and develop a battery that is durable, safe and reasonably easy to manufacture. Basically, it's like the unicorn right now. That is the number one problem. The other problem much the same way developing computer chips requires a clean room, very sophisticated equipment and a very sophisticated engineering infrastructure, which is why you just can't buy, you can't just build a chip factory just because you have the money. You have to have the talent, the room and the expertise to do it, and there's only a handful of folk in the world that know how to do it. You got the same problem here.
Speaker 2:Yields to develop these battery packs, these battery cells, are real tricky. Factorial has been working now for three years to get their yields up, basically to make it commercial. To be able to have a battery factory at commercial grade and scale it up, they need to have a yield up over 90%. When Factorio started their yield was 10% here. By the time they started shipping battery cells to Mercedes, their yield was 85%, still need to be 90. And they need to be able to do it consistently. And they're not there yet. But neither is anybody else.
Speaker 2:What people miss? One of the big things people miss about this whole EV arms race is all the technology that gets developed, ancillary to developing the battery, or the chemicals or the inputs, or how it's done. Aerodynamic issues, weight issues, chemistry issues, all get dealt with, which will have benefits beyond the EV industry and may in fact have benefits for the electrical industry and whole other industries that are not directly tied to it, because of the activities and the money being spent to resolve these problems. That is one wonderful thing. If you're a certain age, you remember when President John F Kennedy committed the United States to putting a man on the moon in 10 years. The Great Space Race in 10 years. The great space race 10 years by the end of the 1960s, july 20th 1969 to be. In fact, we did just that, but the money we spent as a country to get there generated a lot of inventions along the way that had nothing to do with space at all.
Speaker 2:Let me name drop one that's probably in your kitchen. The microwave is one of those examples, one of many examples. We're doing the same thing here with EVs. In the case of Factorial, they actually proved it in a Mercedes, but it's just one car. What has to happen now is they got to put a fleet out there, because automakers hate risk. They're almost as bad as banks and insurance companies.
Speaker 2:They, contrary to what you might believe about automakers, risk is not their thing. They're going to drive cars. They're going to run these through extremely hot, extremely cold, they're going to make them wet, they're going to make them salty, they're going to do all kinds of things to try to make it to fail. And once, wherever it fails, then they're going to do better to resolve the problem, because they don't want it to fail when you get it, when you buy it. As a result, they don't even expect that there'll be vehicles in production with solid state batteries much before 2028, but check this out, that's less than three years from now. But even they're confident. They believe that there may be vehicles on the road in production with solid state batteries in the early 2030s. That's literally less than five years away, which, in the auto industry, is no time at all. Takes longer than that to plan, build and equip an assembly plant to bring a new product online.
Speaker 2:These guys are playing the long game because, honestly, like I told you, told you years ago and I'm going to say it again, lithium ion is a crossover chemical. The current battery chemistries are going to be obsolete in five years, if not ten. What we know now is not even going to be how we're powering anything electric, including your phones. There's so many new chemistries out there all trying to get away from the shortcomings of regular lithium-ion as we know it. They'll get costs down, they'll get quality up, they'll get charging up and they'll get densities increased and, as a result, we will all be better off, no telling all the inventions that will get discovered along the way, which have nothing to do with EV batteries but will benefit from all that money that got spent as they develop and resolve these problems. Getting this to scale. They're called pod hotels, and Boston has one.
Speaker 2:We are the Tech Mobility Show. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings of the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow. Did you know that TechMobility has a YouTube channel? Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the TechMobility Show. Each week, I upload a few short videos of some of the hot topics that I cover during my weekly radio program. I've designed these videos to be informative and entertaining. It's another way to keep up on current mobility and technology news and information. Be sure to watch, like and subscribe to my channel. That's the Tech Mobility Show on YouTube. Check it out.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the place to be these days, and we're no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Instagram videos, from the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology. So have you ever heard of something called a pod hotel? A pod hotel are hotels where guests sleep in tiny compartments with beds inside something known as pods. These pods come in all shapes and sizes square and round, metal and wooden. Many aren't even large enough to sit up in. So I gotta ask what's the point? This is Topic C. Well, if you are a global traveler, particularly to Europe, you probably are familiar with hostels and a hostel. These are a lot like those, and I'm still asking what's the point Me? I like my privacy in my hotel room and I snore, so you know why would I want to be in something like this, with limited privacy and security as an issue? This is Boston, by the way, not far from the North End. I used to work in the North End, so I just don't get it. I don't get it, but here's what's going on.
Speaker 2:The writer talked about pod hotels and they've existed in Japan since 1979. I heard of them and after 40 years they started blowing up on American social media and in the last five years they started popping up in the United States. The city of Boston has one, and I'm not surprised it's called the Miko Hotel. Now the Miko sits off a busy intersection, less than a block from the TD Garden, which is the old Boston Garden, and that's in the North End. Like I said, I used to work there. Okay, they walk. Let me paint you a picture of what you could expect walking into this thing. You walk into the main lobby. It's a rectangular room where wood paneling adorned the white painted walls and round mirrors hung in place of paintings.
Speaker 2:Now, in the case of the author who stayed at one, checking was simple. They had booked their stay the day before on the websites. All they had to do was put down a security deposit and collect my key card. For on the websites, all I had to do was put down a security deposit and collect my key card. They had bought a one night in a single pod, which is Miko's slightly larger pod variant. It was only three bucks more expensive than the cheaper bunk bed pod, so I decided to splurge. So let me stop right there. This is the part that I'm having trouble with. I'm traveling to a city. I'm going to spend the night because I just need a place to sleep. So you know, try one of these pod hotels. Where is my security? Because I don't know nothing about none of these people? And oh yeah, let me add in the rest of it Communal bathrooms.
Speaker 2:No, not doing that and a locker for your things. I mean you're just getting the best necessities. You sleep in a shared room with amenities like bathrooms are communal and in these designs this is really stripped down. You won't find no fancy decor, no wallpaper or paintings, only blank walls. Again, I can understand. I know a number of people who have done their traveling and they've stayed at these places try to save money.
Speaker 2:But in today's world, my big question with a pod hotel, particularly in America, particularly right now, security, just because my bunk mate you know paid and you know got SecureKey, don't mean they're okay. All it means is they paid the money. They're in there. There is nothing. There are no locks other than the building's secure, but I'm talking about people who are passing through there.
Speaker 2:I don't get this part and maybe it's my age. I don't get it. And honestly, in Boston it's $85 a night for literally a bed. In fairness, about 20 years ago I stayed in Midtown Manhattan in supposedly a hotel room at a Sheraton and that room was barely big enough to hold a bed in. It did have a bathroom, but I swear. I think I put my hands out and I think I was able to touch the walls on each side of the room. I really do. It was tight and back then it was $170 a night for that. So maybe cost is part of it, I don't know. I just you know I wanted to share this with you because it was so different, so unique. It was part of transportation and travel and the fact that it's happening here. But I can't see this One.
Speaker 2:Americans like the privacy. We all like our privacy, particularly when we travel. You're in a strange town. Heck, even if it's a town you know you're staying, you don't know these people around you and nowadays even a locked door ain't necessarily the best security you got. So a pod hotel I know they're big in Europe, they're really big in Japan, but it's a whole different lifestyle. It's a whole different value set. Unlike the freewheeling United States, people are more formal in Japan. People are more proper in Japan. People are more polite in Japan. I'm not saying it can't happen, but I'm saying I would be very uncomfortable in a situation like that.
Speaker 2:Now, to her credit, she was able to control the lighting in her little place. She could pull down a shade or it was good and dark so she could get some sleep and it was a little fan she could turn on to drown out all the noise. But if you wanted any kind of entertainment, it was your phone. That's what you're going to bring, although you had a place to plug it in. You had a place to store minimum stuff. You ain't bringing an overnight bag as you know it. You're going to be bringing less than that even.
Speaker 2:And then I don't even know about this communal bathroom stuff. I mean, how often are they cleaned? And if the person and how many bathrooms are there, the communal? And I was led to believe in this piece that even on her floor there was more than one. So I'm not really sure how that works. But yeah, it's just. It seems to be a weird process and I guess it's one thing that if you're younger you relate to it. Being older, I am spoiled. I like my privacy, I like my hotel room, I like my quiet and I'm sure anyone else does.
Speaker 2:Now she talked about inside of her room, wood panels separated about 20 pods. The tinier bunk bed pods sat stacked on top of each other, while the larger single pods had more ceiling space and each pod held a panel with an outlet, buttons controlling light and fan and a small pocket to hold your phone. That was kind of it. That's kind of all you get right there. In that she complained that her pod wasn't as sci-fi as the one she'd stayed in in Tokyo, which was smaller and made of smooth white plastic like the inside of an MRI machine, but still felt unusual.
Speaker 2:My question is obviously you're not going to stay at a pot if you're claustrophobic. If claustrophobia is your issue, this is not the place you're going to go. So here's the question Would you consider if your passenger needed a place to sleep clean, dry and we're going to assume safe relatively If you just needed a place to sleep, would you consider a pod hotel if one was available, particularly if you could save upwards of 50% of the cost of a regular hotel room? How important is ultimate security to you and do you get claustrophobic? Is your space important to you? These would be the questions that I would ask. I'd want to see this thing for myself, but for me personally, no, no, I don't see me seeing anything like that anytime soon. Ever. I might go look at it, but I doubt very much I would sleep there only because just safety, I can't. If I don't feel safe, I won't sleep. It just won't happen. And in something that tight in that with other people that you don't know. That's the issue you.
