Motorized tricycle that runs on human poo

Toto, Japan's foremost toilet manufacturer, has made a motorized tricycle that runs on human crap. The saddle is a functional toilet, and if you can muster up enough colonic motility to keep up a steady stream, you could travel the world.

Toto makes some damned fine toilets, incidentally -- we went to rather a lot of trouble to get one of the Toto toilet-seat/bidet devices imported to the UK and converted to local voltage, and never regretted it.

Lisa at TokyoMango explains:

As the person drives, he can poop into the bowl, and that poop will be turned into fuel for the car. It's actually part of a campaign that Toto is running in an effort to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% in the next 6 years. The motorcycle will be making its way from Kyushu to Tokyo over the next month (departing in six days). Very exciting! I'm not sure who's driving but I'm sure that, in addition to having a drivers license, they had to check his stool to make sure its healthy and fuel-worthy.

(via Tokyo Mango)

• [nosehat]

  So… gas it up and go?

  (groan)

• [Mike Polding]

  I’d say you’d need a bit more than just gas to get it to go! ;)

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Gee Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.

• [igzabier]

  You can send the bike messages which will be displayed on its lightpainting LED!
  It also has 7 (hot?)air horns!

  maybe it has a seat warmer too?

  I’m in Kyushu but the google translate is so crazy-where does the bike start?

  check out Toto’s poo mascot for kids on their site too!

  http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftototalk.jp%2Ftop.html&act=url

  • [Running Pinata]

    In Fukuoka-ken, Kyushuu-shi, from the Toto Ogura factory it seems.

• [BarBarSeven]

  Ass, grass, or fecal mass… Nobody rides for free.

• [Agit]

  why deas this make me think of Aachi &Ssipak?

  • [Michael Papadopoulos]

    Same here, I knew that movie was prophetic! :)

• [funnyandspicy]

  What a great invention. This idea even beat Escher’s Waterfall ! Bye Bye to Fossil fuel.
  http://goo.gl/j8ZZh

• [voiceinthedistance]

  Would it not make sense to say that this motorcycle’s fuel source is primarily rice?

• [shadowfirebird]

  So I can go anywhere for free providing I crap in public, possibly flouting local indecency laws in the process?

  Brilliant technology, yes.  Good publicity campaign, probably.  But great invention, the bike itself?  I think not.

• [keithfulkerson]

  In Mexico it has nitrous.

• [Oliver Schmieding]

  the return of shitty shitty bang bang  :p

• [Narwhale]

  No need to wrestle with the Toto Washlet, Cory. We were put off by the £1500 price tag and were thus delighted to install the Hyundai. £400 and all wired up for the UK.

  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hyundai-HDBR-550NI-Bidet-Seat-Washlet-Dusch-WC-/110749044517?pt=UK_HG_Toilets_RL&hash=item19c9284f25

  If you’re ever around the Angel, drop by and drop one.

• [Marktech]

  “…best part of the round-the-world tour?  India, for sure.  I wish we could have spent more time there, but, well, you know…”

• [IamInnocent]

  By the time you’ve eaten enough to crap enough to go around the world sitting on this, you’ve gotten so big that it’s the world that goes around you.

• [Another Kevin]

  Hey, Cory! I know that you’ve pointed us at  National Film Board of Canada classics before. Are you old enough to remember “Bate’s Car: Sweet as a Nut”? (Wacky British inventor, circa 1971, modifies his 1953 Hillman to run on methane from chicken manure.) http://www.nfb.ca/ appears to be down at the moment, so I can’t verify the link to the online video, but there’s a collection of news stories from the time (and the link to the video) over at Journey to Forever. So now the Chicken Coupe rides again!

• [professor]

  They could partner up with Taco Bell for a land-speed record!

• [grandmapucker]

  Could’ve done without the image of Cory washing his star fruit

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  I looked at this and my first thought was “Hey!  Honda still makes that 2-valve OHC single!” But I wasn’t sure, so I went to the site to get a better look at the engine.  Oddly, the engine is intentionally blurred in the photos there.  Possibly the manufacturer of the modified bike does not want their name associated with this project.

  • [Bad Juju]

    Even if Honda isn’t still making that aircooled single, China sure is. Lifan & Loncin make clones of the GY150 among other Honda engines..

  • [Beanolini]

    Hey!  Honda still makes that 2-valve OHC single!

    Honda are still making 2-valve SOHC singles- the CBF125 and Innova/Wave use such engines, for example. They made pushrod singles until very recently (Cg125 used one till 2008, I think).

    As Mr. Juju pointed out, there are now Chinese copies of Honda engines- this includes both pushrod and OHC engines.

    It’s possible to get well over 100mpg with these engines- a Dutch guy reckons he can get over 200mpg using a home-made aerodynamic shell over an Innova 125.

• [Brian Bara]

  This is a joke, right?

• [Their feldspars]

  Stop forwarding that crap to me.
   

• [TheMudshark]

  Toto is also responsible for one of my all time favourite Japanese TV spots:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpftkjHM7w

• [Paul Renault]

  Does it only work with human poo?   If it works with dog or cat poo, you’ll never run out of fuel.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Does it only work with human poo?

    It would seem like carnivore poo and herbivore poo would have different fuelogenic properties.

    • [Paul Renault]

      Yes, with herbivores’ poo, you get tinder.

• [pebird]

  I do not want to be driving behind that thing.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    I do not want to be driving behind that thing.

    How rich the odors of your street, Stilgar.

• [Wil St. Hill]

  Reduced CO2 emissions is an admirable objective…. the downside is that other emissions might become a serious problem at least in urban areas.

• [Art]

  Oh, for fuck’s sake! 
  Can’t the “fuel” be obtained in private?

• [Mathieu Mantrant O’Dowd]

  Hey you  can buy the seat with the douche and buttock drying fan in the Tokyo Airport duty free shops for about 60€. It so easy to get one, just go to Tokyo.

• [emschelle]

  It’d be really crappy to get in an accident with one of these.

• [CharredBarn]

  That thing must be fast as shit.

• [Zack Seas]

  Ezekiel 4:12 the Lord God commands cooking with poooooo 

• [cdh1971]

  Brother bought a coconut
  He bought it for a dime.
  His sister had another one 
  She trade it for the lime.

  She put the lime in the coconut
  she drank them both up.

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  I have to wonder about the mileage this rig would get.  Because of course I do, that’s why.  How much poo would be required to provide enough fuel for a year’s motoring?  Is this like Biodiesel, which requires a chain of fried food restaurants to run one converted Mercedes?
  It would certainly be more efficient to produce the fuel in a fixed location and store only the finished fuel on the vehicle.  The fuel production could be optimized using a more sophisticated stationary facility.  The vehicle would be smaller/lighter and more fuel efficient without an attached gas factory.  Maybe it is scalable.  I’d like to know but the translation of the page doesn’t do very well with the technical material.

• [Vin Reilly]

  Great idea — as soon as they invent clothing that stays clean even after you _shit_ thru it (which in itself would be no mean feat).

• [petr]

  what a great idea, not like there will ever be a shortage.
  My dad growing up in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia remembered the Germans converted cars to run on woodgas. 

• [BukaHobbit]

  How about a pedicab version for people with irritable bowel syndrome? Might as well capitalize on your condition.