12 votes

A Welsh town will install anti-sex toilets that could spray users with water

8 comments

  1. Rainbow
    Link
    This sounds like it could go very wrong. Knowing how inaccurate some self-flushing toilets are (and we've had decades to work out all the kinks in those), I would probably not want to use this....

    Meanwhile, any violent movement will automatically open doors and sound high-pitched alarms with a fine water jet soaking the individual cubicles.

    This sounds like it could go very wrong. Knowing how inaccurate some self-flushing toilets are (and we've had decades to work out all the kinks in those), I would probably not want to use this.

    The materials used for the walls and floors are graffiti-resistant while ‘SOS’ buttons will open doors automatically and alert the warden control system.

    What is a "warden control system"? I've only heard wardens referred to in the context of a jail or prison.

    14 votes
  2. Rocket_Man
    (edited )
    Link
    This is a strange article I found on /r/HostileArchitecture. While some are rightfully concerned about the specifics of the implementation I wonder what this says about public spaces. It seems...

    This is a strange article I found on /r/HostileArchitecture. While some are rightfully concerned about the specifics of the implementation I wonder what this says about public spaces. It seems like this approach treats the average user as if they are the worst user just in case.

    If this took off I imagine the next step would be charging users by the bodily function they need. Don't you dare take a poo when you only paid for a pee or the toilet will spray you with water and alert the authorities.

    I also probably should have linked to the initial article as it offers more information and less social media filler https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/new-robo-toilets-planned-porthcawl-16761184

    8 votes
  3. [2]
    jgb
    Link
    Unless it's also able to detect the weight of a man and a sheep, this won't work in Wales :-) Some of the proposed features of these toilets seem quite good. The deep clean seems eminently...

    Unless it's also able to detect the weight of a man and a sheep, this won't work in Wales :-)

    Some of the proposed features of these toilets seem quite good. The deep clean seems eminently reasonable, given the squalid state of most public WCs. Discouraging rough sleeping is a good idea too, to make sure the toilets remain available for the public for their intended use. My programmer brain is struggling to grapple, however, with the mechanics of the proposed system to detect the inappropriately amorous. How do you distinguish a couple from an overweight person? What about a parent with a child? It seems pretty infeasible to me, especially given that false positives really aren't acceptable in this situation.

    6 votes
    1. alexandria
      Link Parent
      The rough sleepers are the public, and are the most vulnerable. I would only accept this attitude from the council if they gave safe spaces for homeless people to sleep, but in general from what...

      Discouraging rough sleeping is a good idea too, to make sure the toilets remain available for the public for their intended use.

      The rough sleepers are the public, and are the most vulnerable. I would only accept this attitude from the council if they gave safe spaces for homeless people to sleep, but in general from what I've seen living here they don't. Instead at night time homeless people are paraded around by police like cattle every few hours. It's horrifying and disgusting. They take a segment of people who are most at need and most vulnerable, and ensure that they can't get a night's sleep.

      My programmer brain is struggling to grapple, however, with the mechanics of the proposed system to detect the inappropriately amorous. How do you distinguish a couple from an overweight person? What about a parent with a child? It seems pretty infeasible to me, especially given that false positives really aren't acceptable in this situation.

      I had the same question. Not to mention what about people with disabilities, motor control problems, etc.

      11 votes
  4. [4]
    unknown user
    Link
    So, what are the reasonable downsides of people having sex in public toilets? This awfully sounds like an effort to make someone rich through unnecessary infrastructure contracts & work justified...

    So, what are the reasonable downsides of people having sex in public toilets? This awfully sounds like an effort to make someone rich through unnecessary infrastructure contracts & work justified with some obsolete moral blabbering. "People are fucking in the toilets, so let's buy these new shitter-o-trons from my buddy Tom and pay him with tax money!"

    4 votes
    1. [4]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Hate to break it to you, but people's poop particles, amongst other things, are already likely on nearly everything in every bathroom, including your own (unless you only ever flush with the lid...

        Hate to break it to you, but people's poop particles, amongst other things, are already likely on nearly everything in every bathroom, including your own (unless you only ever flush with the lid down). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume#Mechanism

        6 votes
        1. [2]
          Comment deleted by author
          Link Parent
          1. cfabbro
            Link Parent
            Oddly enough, while it is definitely disturbing conceptually, I also find that fact sort of strangely comforting and freeing as well. If poop particles and worse have been on everything in every...

            Oddly enough, while it is definitely disturbing conceptually, I also find that fact sort of strangely comforting and freeing as well. If poop particles and worse have been on everything in every bathroom since the invention of the flushable toilet, and in all my time of using them I haven’t gotten some crazy, rare or deadly disease, that shows me my fear of germs is perhaps a bit overblown and unfounded. Don’t get me wrong, I still wash my hands regularly, especially after using the toilet, but knowing that fact reduces my fear of using public restrooms and helps prevent me from becoming a compete germaphobe.

            5 votes
      2. unknown user
        Link Parent
        Well wouldn't the same mechanism that keeps people from defecating or urinating everywhere in there work for not ejaculating all over the place?

        Well wouldn't the same mechanism that keeps people from defecating or urinating everywhere in there work for not ejaculating all over the place?

        1 vote