It's twice the price of a flight, and with planes you can pick between 3 major airports in SFBA and 5 in LA, which are probably closer to the locations you're really going between.
Cabin is nice because the total time I spend awake (< 30mins at each end) is less than that of taking a flight (at least a 3 hour contiguous block). It's also less stressful not having to worry about luggage, security, when to leave for the airport, etc.
If I couldn't sleep like a rock, or didn't live in Santa Monica, or wanted to go to south bay instead of SF, I would get a flight instead. I agree this is not for everyone, whether it be comfort-wise or location-wise, but I do hope this new tech helps people sleep more peacefully, and that they expand to more locations.
I think the innovation is that instead of dealing with the hassle of going to the airport, going through security, and sitting in a cramped seat, you just spend a good night's sleep traveling.
Airport to airport it should take maybe 2.5 hours (1 hr before flight + 1.5 for the flight) versus the 5 hr to drive between the two.
For journeys shorter than 400 miles, driving is faster than flying. PLAUSIBLE
The Build Team had a race of 380 miles (610 km) from San Francisco to Los Angeles, between Tory on a plane, and Kari and Grant driving. The bottlenecks of air travel (arriving early to get through security, waiting for the plane to start boarding, retrieving luggage at the destination, and renting a car) delayed Tory significantly. Kari and Grant had fewer such delays, but did have to stop for gas and food at one point, and traffic in and near the larger cities did slow them down. Kari and Grant arrived at their destination after 5h 33m; Tory was slightly faster, at 5h 25m. Because of the close result and variables that could alter the result either way, this myth was declared plausible.
Pretty much the only time I flew was when there was just one of us and I would either need to leave or arrive during rush hour.
But I'm curious, why did you drop off your spouse and then pick her up? Why not go together? Are you really afraid of flying and she's afraid of driving? I'm just trying to imagine a scenario where it makes sense to split up like that.