““A number of the features of floater transportation that Eric notices will be determined by competition. In an era when private cars will be computerized, so that passengers may read or watch television as they drive to work, floater lines will only be able to compete if they provide direct nonstop rather than multiple-stop service. Also, station facilities can be smaller if they only have to handle one floater at a time, rather than a train of them. Psychologists have found that the popularity of automobiles depends in part on their privacy: they are secure little rolling homes, protected against the unwanted intrusions of public transportation, such as squalling babies or chatty neighbors. Floaters will provide privacy for individuals, or for parties of two or four traveling together-and they will provide that privacy while moving their passengers at ten times the speed of an automobile.””
