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Dutch Unveil Robot Gas Station Attendant
Lucas123 writes "According to a Reuters' story, Dutch inventors today took the wraps off a $110,000 car-fueling robot they say is the first of its kind. (It was inspired by a cow milking robot.) After registering the car as it pulls up to the pump, the machine matches your fuel cap design with those in a database and your car's fuel type, and then a robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, 'opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.' Wait till Hollywood gets hold of this scenario."
I for one welcome our Dutch gas pumping robotic overlords!!
~Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder~
First of all, there are other bizarre coincidences, such as the appearance of a DVD in the movie "Robocop" (ten years before DVD would actually debut), the "President Schwarzenegger" reference in "Total Recall" (long before his political career), the 9-11 satire in "Starship Troopers" (four years before 9-11), etc.
Did he use his Ph.D. in mathematics to construct a time machine (perhaps to come back and have sex with a young Elizabeth Berkley)? Is he the prophet of our age? And what more does this portend? Are invisible men next?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
the gas station blew up after the robot sparked a fat, Amsterdam blunt while pumping fuel. *ducks*
The porn industry (also located in Southern California) already has.
Also, it seems that you can register
-Peter
In Indiana, Shell tried a similar robot in my home town. It cost about $100 for a special gas cap and had a huge bay you would drive into. I guess it wasn't too popular, but definitely existed before this.
We can write the script here: every robot movie anywhere always turns into RUR:
Naive inventor tries to make robots "better".
Robots turn on humanity.
Humans/robots win (this is the only variation in the plot permitted, ever.)
Yawn.
Any junior-year engineer at college could do this? How is this useful, news, or important?
not trying to be a Luddite here, but really, whats next, a robot that wipes your backside?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
My first thought is that this development is just the latest incremental improvement in robotics, and will help pave the way for more useful robotic applications.
Then I remembered a trip through the state of Oregon. As of ten years ago or so travelers were not permitted to pump their own gas. I don't know if this is still the case, or why it was the case in the first place, but these robots might actually have an application if there are many places with laws on the books requiring certified entities to dispense gas to motorists.
[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as Homer J. Simpson. Preparing doughnut tube.
[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as College Student. Preparing beer tube.
[whirrrr-click] Target identified. Model recognized as Slashdot Visitor. Preparing "In Mother Russia" meme-milk and "Cowboy Neal" flakes.
and I can't understand how other people handle not locking their fuel flap. You lock your car, which is covered by insurance, but you leave the fuel for the taking? Thankfully, I've yet to see a film where someone turns a car into a Molotov cocktail by inserting a rag into the fuel cap and lighting it up.. thankfully, because kids have a thing for emulating what they see in films.
My fuel flag does have the means to be opened from inside the car.. so I guess I could just do that when approaching Sir-Pumps-A-lot.
How we know is more important than what we know.
This is the very definition of a solution in search of a problem.
Next thing you know the Dutch will invent an automated pot-smoking robot. Or a robot that runs on German xenophobia.
Residents of New Jersey and Oregon are thrilled by this latest development. Finally, a way to fuel up without rolling down the window.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
to check your tire pressure. Just saying.
Will it open my door and take the key out of my pocket?
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Now this is were automation really is handy dandy stuff. But actual merits aside, if it were to ever be used in the US it would be a novelty. People would bitch and complain...
I grew up in Oregon. A state that requires an attendent to pump your gas. I worked at a texaco one summer. There were 3 distinct positions on the issue:
1. Out of staters: Oh my god wow, it's really illegal for me to pump my own gas? Why thank you keep the change.
2. The in towners: Hurry the fuck up kid and please get my side windows.
3. The drive up politicians: Don't you see how this is hurting the very business you work for by requring man power for a job the costumer could do themselves. (My reply: dude I'm just here for the beer money)
So yeah I see the same thing to varying degrees happening at the pump (if this were to ever become a substantial choice for gas station owners here in the states)... Which would just be a rehash of the old auto workers complaints I can remember from as far back as grade school. Our science text books had these odd placed "Look to the future" sections. One of which was about robotics, and how there was a concern it would replace jobs with out creating... yadda yadda yadda Seemed like a pro union slant to me even then. (tho for the record I am pro union)
All that aside. I think it would be cool to have a robot doing this. I've worked in gas stations outside of Oregon here and there. Where people could do their own fueling, the amount of gas people slopped all over themselves, their car or the ground was substantial... and they always wanted a refund!
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
Hey guys,
i'm actually writing this from my iphone, while in my car, while one of these new robots fills up my volvo. I don't know why you guys are tagging this "whatcouldpossiblygowrong", it seems well engineered and apparently efficient. The only problem I can foresee would be some sort of short circuit which could produce a spark and ##KR2F@F@$F$ {NO CARRIER}
What will gas station attendants do when this replaces them? Go work at a fast food place? great, but in 5 years when they 'iBurgerFlipper' replaces them then what?
The idea that the jobs market loss in one are creates more jobs another is not always true.
Espcially when you consider global scales of volume. If McDonalds can displace 2 owrkers with a 110,000 robot, you bet they would.
And who do you think will build the robots? that's right, other robots. While it will create new industries, it can not create enough to replace 1/10 of the workers that will be displaced.
Am I saying we shouldn't adobt robotic technology? no, I am not. In fact I welcome robotic technology. What I am saying is we, as a global society, should prepare for what is going to happen.
If robots can replace all the non creative jobs, perhaps it will be time for a form of socialism. Or maybe not allow corporations to own robots, and only let people own 1 robot. One which can either work in place of you and you get a paycheck from that.
More free time for people is always good. I would much rather work on my poor painting skills then listen to the crunching of my cube neighbor all FRICKIN DAY.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Suppose that this robot works perfectly every time without hassling the customers, damaging their vehicles, wasting their time, or generally causing other problems which cost the gas station owner money (a big assumption). From the standpoint of the gas station owner why invest in this robot when your customers already pump their own gas at no additional cost to you? I can think of only three (3) possibilities. First, if your competitors install this robot AND enough of your customers refuse to gas up at your station because you DO NOT have the robot then it might make sense provided that the margin (thin already for independent station owners) is able to support the cost which brings up the next point. Second, your customers are willing to pay more for their gas for the novelty OR the convenience of having a robot pump it for them (perhaps, but certainly a niche. Most people are very price sensitive when it comes to buying gas, driving miles out of their way to save a couple of pennies in some cases). Third, the local laws require a human attendant anyway (Oregon has this type of law) where the present value of the gas station attendant's wages in perpetuity are more than the costs of purchasing and maintaining the robot (provided that the initial assumption about damage to property and persons remains true). In any case it is highly likely that this robot will not be widely used or fill only niche markets because it is a cost center for the gas station owner and not likely to be or become a profit center. At best, it might become a requirement of doing business, but I cannot see many gas station owners installing and using the robot unless they are forced to by either the marketplace or the government.
It has nothing to do with safety. It has to do with the deluded belief that creating busy work for people to do is a good thing for everyone concerned.
Mmmm.. Donuts
So, how soon until we find out that gas-pumping robots, too, can die in freak, gasoline-fight accidents?
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
don't get out of your car and attempt to pick anything up, unless of course, you're "into" that kind of stuff (not that there is anything wrong with that).
I know its not exactly a serious workout, but jesus, are people too lazy to do this themselves? Frankly I enjoy getting OUT of the car and stretching my legs, its never exactly a major chore.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
jeez! filling up your own car isnt rocket science. (and some people take
some pleasure in actually squeezing the trigger and saying goodbye
to mucho $$$$
in Italy they have 24 hour unattended fuel stations where you
simply put money/paycard into a payment machine, select your
pump and it'll dispense up to that amount of cash. thats
even better than this robot junk.
...when the Autobahn gas stations got robot-cleaned toilet seats, this couldn't be far behind.
rj
The article is light on details. What does the robot do with the cap while it's pumping? My car for instance has a tether so you can't lose the cap. This would prevent the robot from taking it in it's possesion while it pumped fuel. Most fuel caps don't have this tether so they would have to be held on to. How does the Robot figure this out?
I will make several assumptions
:) :)
1) Minimum wage is $5/hr
2) The employer pays no additional benefits
3) There are 260 work days in a year.
One employee would have to work 22,000hrs to cost the same as the initial startup capital cost of buying this machine. At 8hr/day, thats 2750 days. Ergo, thats ~10.5 years of labour.
Worth it? I've probably made some basic math error somewhere, that you guys will make funny of me for, so I'll say it now, screw you!
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
Fortunately, being a full-serve station, I was nearby and able to shut off the pump before we went up in a mushroom cloud. But what if there was no human attendant?
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I thoroughly enjoy reading articles about Dutch, gas filling robots. Especially at such a low cost, only 100k. I wonder how much money, and no doubt time, was invested into this project, yet we can't seem to develop a mainstream alternative fuel?! What the fuck people. Not to mention, US-LHC budget being cut and experiments that find the basic building blocks of the universe have to be shut down 3 months early, while the dutch get high on fumes. I 3 2008
I haven't seen one since I was 6. As far as I know they only exist in New Jersey, where its illegal to pump your own gas. But good thoughts otherwise. Are attendants more common in Europe or other parts of the world beyond the Midwest of the United States?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
I hope those babies are modular and they've been engineered for future retrofit. It seems like a lousy investment if they're only configured to pump gas in a future looking (thankfully) petrol free. Can they juice a hybrid, or drop some hydrogen pellets as well? Unless they can do that, why not give real people something to do besides breed.
A topless female robot gas station attendant?
Slashdot is dead. Long live Yahoo!
What's the point of automating a task that is not time consuming, is easy, isn't repetitive (except maybe for gaz guzzling huge SUVs that must be re-filled every couple of miles) and perfectly safe when done by humans. Better, the human are even more precise and don't require a database of known models to locate the cap. They just find it. (And are less likely to scratch the car while attempting to ram the fuel hose into a location where the cap is supposed to be on another different mis-recognized model).
Also the robot is pretty expensive, and adds few benefits to the station except the "novelty" effect (the first week after the robot gets installed, everyone would like to try it. The the fad will pass). This won't help the station as they will have to pass the robot's cost to their consumer and the fuel is pretty much expensive already.
I don't know, but I think that money would be better spent at finding something more environmentally friendly to put inside the hose rather than a robot to hold the hose.
It makes sense for cows : Farmer have a large number of cow, the task is time consuming and repetitive and a robot is available 24/24h whenever the cow decides to get milked and the whole diary cow business isn't going to disappear any time soon.
But I fail to see the point of this robot for cars.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I drive a Diesel powered vehicle. Most "fuel thieves" are looking for gasoline, and those that want diesel fuel are more likely going to look for much larger quantities of it (large trucks). (Yes, go ahead and draw your paralleling analogy of "Security through Obscurity")
That aside, the last local outbreak of vehicle fuel thefts were committed by drilling a hole into the bottom of fuel tank and capturing the gas in several low-profile containers rotated out for collection. Unless you have something armoring that blow-molded plastic tank, it's easier (and faster) than siphoning it out through the filler neck.
The lock does, however help deter vandalism whether the introduction of a foreign substance (sugar, soda-pop, water) or ala four-wheeled Molotov cocktail.
Not to spoil your party, but the robot is for people with disabilities who drive their car but have a hard time getting out alone. Like when you need to pump your own gas.
you have a car where the gas cap is on the rear \_(o.0)_/
This doesn't fare well with anti-theft measures: as far as I know, all current European Fords have a lock on the flap. You need the ignition key to open it. I don't know about other makes, but I remember seeing gas caps with locks. Some cars' gas caps must be opened with a button on the dashboard.
So here's how it goes:
Usage: km/h for speed (kilometers per hour); kph for very slow impulses (kilopond hours).
"Dutch wives" already perform full service at a much lower price!
I think the adult toy business has already gone down this path :)
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
Like many people, in countries where the price of fuel makes the average American go pale
when translated into dollars, I have a locking filler cap. This robot needs to come round
to my window, politely ask for my key and unlock the thing itself!
I guess it picks whichever type of gas is best for your car, but some cars will run just as well on different types of octane, and some people (usually mistakenly) like to 'treat' their car to a higher octane.
Also, at over $100k, I don't think it will be an instant hit. It was hard enough for most stations to justify putting in the car swipe systems on the pump. Mostly because of lost revenue on impulse buys inside, but this robot would be even worse. The person wouldn't even have to leave the car, so he isn't going to be buying any overpriced snacks. Maybe they should make the robot take snack orders as well.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
This might be an OK idea for cars, but what happens when I need to fill my lawn mower, a gas can, an ATV on a trailer, motorcycle, etc...
Seems like there are a large number of situations when this wouldn't work. Will the robot replace all pumps? Will there be special pumps for when the robot doesn't work? Will gas for my lawn mower get more expensive since I have to drive across town to find a station that can actually put gas in a can?
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heh not to be such a youtube link whore, but when i first read the title of this article, i could only think of the robotic gas station attendants from the game Stubbs the Zombie. sexual undertones, anyone?
Where I am from gas tanks either have to be unlocked with the key or with a switch inside the vehikle.
Is that not the general case?
Both the switch and the key could be solved with driver-robot interaction, but with the key that sounds vastly impractical.
"Wait till Hollywood gets hold of this scenario."
They already have and did a movie about it, Terminator 3.
The movie was about robots that were more sophisticated, but still a not so good movie nonetheless.
Maybe give it two legs so it can go places where humans go, Maybe give it two arms and two hands so it can manipulate things the way humans do. Maybe give it enought basic intelligence to do what a human can do.
Hmmm, then you end up with an "Android" that can be programmed to do almost anything, maybe add some learning code so instead of hainvg to sit all day and wade through tons of code you show it what it should do and it does it.
You could mass produce them by the thousands or millions and sell them to almost everyone, want your own personal landscaper, buy a bot, want a personal chef, buy a bot. Want to pick lettuce, buy a bot. Train one bot to puck lettuce, copy the learning files to the rest of the bots you own and you have a robotic lettuce picking army.
But power density and all those mechanical parts could be a problem, well here is an easy solution. Take illegals and remove their brains and put the AI computer board in their empty head and power it with the device they came up with to extract electricity from blood. Teach it to eat food and water and waste extraction to keep it healthy. Have it take commands in english so that is an added bonus.
What do you do with a bunch of illegal immigrant brains? Well hook them up to life support machines and plug them into second life and all the other MMORPGs so they can totally help us beat the chinese gold farmers, win-win.
The immigrants get a cool matrix like existance, we get self maintaining robots and manual labour done with no fuss, and china gets it's gold farming virtual butt kicked.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
... a robotic flame-thrower robot!
So... basically Skynet is going to be able to take over just by refusing to refuel our SUVs?
The enemies of Democracy are
Drivernator: ...a revolutionary type of gas station attendent...In three years, Gas Net will become the largest supplier of robotic fueling devices. All gas stations are upgraded with Gas Net internals, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they refuel cars with a perfect operational record. The Gas Net funding bill is passed. The system goes on-line on August 4th, 2007. Human decisions are removed from buying gas. The automated pump replacement begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 am, eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah: Gas Net fights back.
Drivernator: Yes. They begin exporting backyard-brewed bio-diesel from Russia.
John: Why Russia? They're supposed to be our chief exporters.
Drivernator: Because Gas Net knows that Russian bio-diesel will damage the bottom line of domestic energy companies while degrading the performance of modern vehicles.
Sarah: Jesus.
SKC
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
Bobby Ray Earle of Wichita unveiled a new automated vehicle fueling system today.
"It's a very sophisticated system," said Earle. "Our customers will be very happy not to have to pump their own gas."
When a car pulls up, the system immediately registers the make and model of the car and locates the fuel cap using two visual sensors. The system then extends its sensory touch system to open the flap, unscrew the cap, and direct the fuel nozzle towards the tank opening.
The cost for the fueling system is minimal. It is expected to price for no more than $5 per hour.
"If only it didn't need a bathroom break every few hours," said Earle. "Other than that, my system works flawlessly."
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Pump 5 is alive!! Need input. Need input.
I have found there are just two ways to go.
It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow. -REK, Jr.
Ofcourse not.. Next comes Judgement Day.
Quack damn you!
and I will tip if they clean my windows. Not that they ever do.
If they checked my tire, and windows? bigger tip.
I am just old enough to remember when an attendant would check your engine, was windows, and fill the tires. I wasn't old enough to drive, but I remember that tipping was part of the sale. You went, paid 50 cents a gallon, and a buck tip.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
because you just know it's going to happen
I'm driving mazda and the fuel tank flap can only be opened from the inside using a special knob. I wonder if introducing my car to the robot would cause any interesting results?
...until we have the spanking robot.
Sounds great but they mentioned that the robot was programmed with x models of cars. It would need (and realistically probably does) some kind of tracking system to pinpoint the flap to open (without scratching the car)
The height of the car is dynamic; people lower their cars, lower their standards of women (fat chicks need loving too).
I drive a motorcycle I wouldnt want some stupid robot spilling gas on my crotch or the paint.
They took our jobs!
Gets a chance to scratch my Jag! Database or not.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Sorry, this event occurred in the movie "No Country for Old Men". Watch out for legions of emulating kids to come...
I'd love to see some one drive away while its pumping, $110k down the drain... right now most pumps have a quick release that "Pops" and only costs about $30 to replace (or $140 more for hose an nozzle to if they don't notice while they leave...)
What worries me is that a robot is likely to do the same. Haven't you ever tried to fill your tank with gas and had the thing click every few seconds, thinking your tank is full? I guess it's some maladjustment of the sensors. With a manually controlled nozzle, it's bearable -- you can just keep pressing the lever (generally more slowly) until your tank is full (at a much slower rate).
But with a robot attendant? The thing will come over, bitch at you to release your tank door, open the door, unscrew and the cap, and begin filling your tank. Two seconds later, it'll get it wrong and think the tank is full, and probably bitch at you for wasting its time as it trundles off to bitch at someone else.
I'm sorry if this is offtopic, but I have found that reading slashdot via the whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag is actually quite amusing! I say, we keep it (but only use where applicable). Who's with me?
The Car manufacturer robot will be eaten by the Gas attendant robots ... ... ... ...
The Gas attendant robots will be eaten by the iburgerflipper robots
The iburgerflipper robots will be mating with the highway patrol robot
The highway patrol robot will be eaten by the robotic elephant
By the time the robotic elephant is eaten, you are being eaten by a robotic grue!
The strongest will survive, believe me!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
... Next thing you expect the robot to make love too ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
"I want to die quiet and peacefully, just like my grandfather, not like his customers screaming for help in his exploding gas-station!"
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Like so many you obviously never employed anyone. This is NOT just a case of paying minimum wage for ONE person.
The robot for the stated amount of money will work 24/7 365 days a year. Never sick, never late, never rude. He makes no demands, has no ambitions to better himself, doesn't demand promotions, doesn't get a higher wage as he gets older. Remmeber this is a DUTCH story, we actually give minimum wage workers a minimum wage they can live on.
The robot doesn't demand overtime, has no holidays.
The robot doesn't need a toilet, a break room, no breaks.
To replace the robot you would need not ONE person but a minimum of THREE people at least to have the station manned 24/7 and that still leaves a lot of times during breaks when there is no service.
There are even more complex things to consider, a lot of gas stations are on highways, minimum driving age in europe is 18. This means the cheapest kind of employee can't reach the place and any 18 year old who can afford a car in holland is going to want enough money to pay for it.
I also seriously wonder about what you call minimum wage in your country. The robot costs 111.000 dollars (75.000) euro. Now I am not that familiar with minimum wage for 16 years old in my country, but it still costs a bit more for the employer in salary and taxesthen 7.500 euro. Offcourse that is only during the day. Nights shifts are not allowed for 16yr olds. Want somebody a bit more mature? Up goes minimum wage, provided offcourse you can get someone for that salary.
Yet another thing you forget, recruitement costs, or do you think that same person is going to work 10 years for the same wage? Not in holland mate, just based on the law alone the wage more then doubles just because you get older.
Offcourse that means you got to replace that person constantly, every 6 months or so (longer contract and in holland people can't be fired just because they have gotten older and get a higher minimum wage), that is expensive, and how many motivated people who are any good will want to work for a company that knows is threating them like throw away employees? Hint, supermarkets do this (Albert Heijn) and they are slowly learning that it has giventhem such a bad rep that they can't find anyone motivated anymore. They got plenty of shelf-fillers who know they are going to be fired once their balls drop, but it means there is nobody who qualifies to stay with the company and fill the higher positions. You can use temps, but the agency is going to want payment on top of the salary.
No, there is a reason robots are used so often. They work, are cheap and you can get rid of messy employees who demand things.
Before the solution for gas stations was to introduce self-serve. Someday in the future robots may bring back the service we once had.
Not that I think it is going to happen anytime soon, this story has a habit of repeating itself.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
My hometown, Emmeloord, the Netherlands, is one of the sleepiest places on the earth. Initially it was a farming community. It was ocean until 1920 when the dyke was built to close the part of the ocean to form a brackish lake, and then in 1941 the area was mad into land just prior to the Germans invading the country. From the fifties, there was a boom of Farmers from Zeeland fleeing the south after the flooding of '53 which killed 5000+ people. My mother was one of those.
/. about my home town, one of the least likely to be in the news places on the planet.
:-D :-D
This town is populated with earthy farm folk. There is nothing to do. On any given Sunday you can fire guns downtown without anyone even hearing them. The streets are empty on Sundays. When I went to high school, 16 year old boys took their John Deeres and Massey Fergusons to school. The first thing I ever learnt how to drive was a small Massey Fergusson tractor from the late forties. The second thing I learnt how to drive was a fork lift.
Nico van Staveren was a long-time friend of my fathers. My father is now dead and gone, but to see Nico come up with this stuff is just more than bizarre. Figure my bewilderment of finding a story on
The only thing I wonder about is what this will mean to anyone with a Toyota or Mazda that happens to pull into the robotic pump. Like my townsman so aptly commented "Why not, but I hope they're insured well".
This really made my day. It brought tears to my eyes as I'm reading this in my living room in Haifa, Israel.
In Europe we have had locking fuel caps, or flaps only openable from inside the car, for years. In the USA until recently fuel has been so cheap that it wasn't worth the effort of stealing. That's why until recently many cars there did not have lockable fuel caps.
It(1) = Bar code and It(2) = the gas robot.
sorry 'bout that.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Did you actually see a video of the shitty machine in operation? It takes ages to fill the tank!!!!
Is it possible that Duch people are that lazy not to do it themselfs? If they need a robot for such a trivial taks then there are great chances that they will need a robot for getting out of the bed and dressed and another to feed them.
Absolutely ingenious machines, including seating-sensor (and heater) so you can't use the spraying mechanism to spray water all over the place, which I'm sure everybody tries the first time they see such a toilet. They have multiple modes... fume-mode, jetmode (warning: don't use '100% water pressure' mode when seated, ouch), etc.
Circumventing the sensorsystem on those toilets became an obsession for me the first time I was in Japan. Great fun to be had with these things and examples of very good design.
Swedish company did this already, 9 years ago.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081899/bus_1F1FAST_.html
from the story: "Autofill AB of Stockholm, Sweden, which developed the technology"
Good job Dutchers! You copied Swedish tech in less than 10 years!
The tragedy of the human condition is that empathy is, by definition, impossible.
For that $110k,v you could pay a human being to do the job. Given the median family income in the US is a few bucks over $30k/yr (irs.gov sources), that's more than three years of a person making a living... *and* then there's maintenance on the 'bot....
mark