Hacker News Reader

Comment by j-bos | Hacker News Reader

What's the reasoning for excluding motor vehicles when aftermarket mods have always been a staple of car culture?

I think you nailed it. The voting population generally disapproves of 'car culture'. Foolish trends like removing catalytic converters and running super loud exhausts for single digit horsepower gains or hooning on public roads don't do its image any favors. But the most basic reason is just that the industry lobby that wants to lock down cars is much stronger than the independent/shade tree mechanic lobby that doesn't.

> Foolish trends like removing catalytic converters and running super loud exhausts for single digit horsepower gains or hooning on public roads don't do its image any favors.

And there is so much more. One of my pet peeves was idiots lifting their trucks but doing nothing with their headlights or worse getting "brighter" headlights. It is possible to be stuck in traffic and be practically blinded by the truck behind you in your mirrors.

This kind of behavior is why I have no problem with manufacturers moving towards digital camera-based sideview mirrors. Plenty of experience being blinded especially at night, very grateful for the "flip up" trick on the rearview that cuts brightness.

I like to adjust the side mirrors so that the excessive light from the car behind me is reflected back at them. Sometimes, they get the hint.

> "brighter" headlights

Don't worry, the Chinese got this trend covered with the 1000000 lumen headlights (actually producing about 1000 which is far less than the normal 1500).

Even worse when they replace the lights with LEDs that are brighter than the sun and color balanced heavily into the blue area of the spectrum.

Maybe safety. But also CO is a pretty high emissions state at the moment and many mods can contribute to that.

One of the many drawbacks of EVs is their lack of repair-ability and modability compared to ICE counterparts. This bill could be been an good way to change that.

EV's are mechanically much simpler that ICE and need less repair. The problem is all the computers which is really an all modern cars problem people blame on EV's.

Maybe there's already sufficient laws in place (due to the car culture) to not need an overlap?

Agreed. There's already a lot of legislation around automotive (and it's pretty good) so maybe they wanted to steer clear of that to avoid legal conflicts with other state's laws. The dealer lobby is also particularly litigious, so perhaps they want to avoid going down that path when it's not really necessary at this time.

Car dealerships are a massive lobbying/influence group in local politics.

Some car dealerships are actually bigger and have higher profits than manufacturers. It's wild.

John Deere maybe?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com