I stayed in something very similar for a week at a Tokyo hostel. Keeping it tidy was hard. My dirty clothes would just slowly accumulate around the bed. Sleeping was fine; I just used earplugs to get the sound of anyone snoring nearby down to an ignorable level. It was a great social experience, though. Not having comfortable private quarters basically forced me and everyone else into the communal food area. Ended up having some great nights exploring Tokyo with the people I met there. I am well aware that everything I have described is a very typical hostel experience and that is the point: for 20-somethings in SF I could see these pods being a pretty great and memorable hostel-like experience.
> He wrote that he wanted to live in the city “without paying $4,000 a month or getting stabbed,” and called the pod a “great solution.”