This feels one step away from a Juicero: take a basic function (actually dispensing water isn’t the hard part of the system), slap an “internet” on it to justify the value add, and attach some marketing terms about water filtration (no actual science or data presented).
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I always carry a water bottle with me (a Wikipedia-branded one with 28 languages![1]) and hardly ever drink packaged water. So far I’ve managed. Certainly never needed a fucking app to drink water.<p>[1] <a href="https://store.wikimedia.org/products/wikipedia-language-water-bottle" rel="nofollow">https://store.wikimedia.org/products/wikipedia-language-wate...</a>
Rome has at least 2,500 public fountains installed in the 1800s that dispense potable water. Remarkable that 150 years ago they didn't think to monetize these, think of the missed revenues.<p>Map: <a href="https://www.fontanelle.org/Mappa-Fontanelle-Roma-Lazio.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.fontanelle.org/Mappa-Fontanelle-Roma-Lazio.aspx</a>
Reminds me a lot of the water refill stations that the government has in desert areas of the United States (Kelso Junction, California leaps to mind). Except the government ones don't have advertising, and aren't connected to the internet.<p>I'm a little perplexed about why this needs to be internet connected. Hire someone to change the ads on the machines and you've made a small dent in unemployment, too.<p>And if an area doesn't have clean water, isn't it reasonable to believe it doesn't have internet connectivity, too?
> The problem is it'll take over $1 trillion to upgrade US drinking water infrastructure.<p>That can't be possible — and I think estimation is way off. Even if there were a drinking fountain for every American (which I'm sure is an over-estimate by an order of magnitude as well), that would still imply an upgrade cost of $3,000 per drinking fountain. If there's a fountain for one in ten Americans; that's $30,000.<p>For context, most modern Elkay drinking fountains are around $1,000.<p>I think this overwhelming figure serves to enhance the point of the author but I think it bares no basis in reality.
I see this as not much different than those bus shelters that are paid for by JCDeaux in exchange for putting ads there.<p>Shelters should be free, and so should water fountains. But free doesn't mean nice. I've seen some poorly maintained bus shelters and water fountains.<p>If people want to slap ads on the side, and increase the quality, then that's great. If your VC funding, or ad funding can pay for a filter on a water fountain, even better.
Water is a vital human necessity. It's literally impossible to live without it. Is it possible to have that just be a public service? The idea that everything needs to generate revenue just feels absurd when just <i>having a water fountain</i> would help people stick around longer and be happier.<p>Also, why is it the size of a vending machine? That feels impractical.
The proliferation of potable water will hitch-hike on other economic expansion projects in the future and (hopefully) we'll see new cost sharing models developed for public infrastructure that are more suited for the future.<p>The tap project is a noble effort, so nothing is taken away from it, but we're going from phonograph records to HD streaming with logistics in what amounts to a very short period of time and skipping radio, TV, casettes and DVD's in the process.<p>When all of the pieces come together, the ingredients for rural metropoles/metropoleis to sprout up where the will exists should provide a more reasonable approach than some of the current inferior innovations/policies/codes[1] that they currently have in place for growth and sustainability.<p>Energy (renewables), water (desalinated), connectivity (low orbit satellite), sustainability (new construction/models/raw materials/resources) and logistics (ML, drones, autonomous roads/vehicles) should make it a whole new ballgame (without having to destroy or burden the existing system).<p>I do like the fact that tap wants to test and report on water quality, but profitability trumps health. They [utility companies] probably don't want to be reminded of whats in the water. They already know.<p>[1]I'm more concerned with the accumulation of prescription meds, but heres a pfas nugget instead. Perhaps the expiration date has passed on public water stewardship.<p><a href="https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2019_pfas_contamination/map/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2019_pfas_contamination...</a>
I think a lot of the comments here are unnecessarily snarky to the point of being unhelpful. If I’m the operator of some public place - let’s say an arcade or a store - every square inch of my store that isn’t being monetized is inefficient, and for as much as I might like to put a water fountain in as a courtesy, why wouldn’t I do the same thing and get revenue for it at the same time?<p>No one argues that water in the best case should be free and that it’s in the public interest to provide it, but that’s just not realistic in a lot of cases. And in this specific case, the net good provided supersedes whatever argument people have against the commercial aspects, IMO. If it’s this or a vending machine or another rack of clothes, isn’t this better?
> the biggest problem we have in putting water on the map is a fundamental mistrust of drinking sources<p>I've never met anyone who wouldn't use a public water fountain to fill up a bottle they had. Not saying they don't exist, just that it's not "the biggest problem".<p>The biggest problem is obviously forgetting to bring your water bottle with you everywhere you go. When that happens to me I buy a disposable bottle and refill it till I lose it. Why don't we just require that all disposable water bottles are built to be reused? With wide mouths so they can be cleaned, maybe even compatible with Mason jar lids.
I wonder what the economics of "big box that does a task" are. Like Redbox or whatever it is someone wants to put in a big vending machine type thing are, finding locations and etc (water hook up or filling will be interesting).<p>It seems like it could be a very logistics heavy business and hard to account for a lot of things.
"fundamental mistrust of drinking sources"<p>I know a few people like this but I don't understand it. Why is the water coming out of a faucet not safe, here in NYC?