Japanese toilet maker Toto unveils motorcycle powered by poop

To highlight a green initiative being undertaken by Japanese toilet maker Toto, the company has unveiled a motorcycle powered by human waste. Could this be a vision of the future? No, probably not.

Now that the dust is beginning to settle following the hype surrounding the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S, it’s time to get back to the serious stuff: Japanese toilet maker Toto has just unveiled a poo-powered motorcycle.

The ingenious design runs on human waste, but what makes it really special is that you can fill it up while you’re moving along – that’s right, the toilet is fitted directly onto the vehicle.

OK, before you start asking, “Where can I get myself one of these?”.…(hang on, you weren’t really going to ask that, were you?), we’d better make it clear that there are currently no plans for a commercial release of Toilet Bike Neo. Indeed, the only release taking place will be by the person riding the vehicle.

The bike, complete with large toilet roll on the back, has been created to draw attention to the Toto Green Challenge (pdf) campaign, where the company has set itself a number of targets to reduce CO2 emissions across all areas of its business by 2017.

Apparently the motorcycle’s toilet also plays music, and even talks. You can see a video (in Japanese) of one of Toto’s talking toilets here.

On Thursday the unique motorcycle will begin a month-long poo-fueled journey across Japan from Toto’s base in the west of the country all the way to Tokyo, publicizing its Green Challenge initiative as it goes, and educating people about how they can cut down on their emissions, so to speak. The Toto blog will be documenting Toilet Bike Neo’s journey to the Japanese capital.

We assume the rider of the poo-powered motorcycle won’t have to waste time making a bathroom stop, though it’s possible they could still end up stranded by the roadside if they run out of gas.

To watch a short video (in English) by Toto about Toilet Bike Neo and the company’s Green Challenge campaign, click here.

[Source: Spoon & Tamago]