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Comment by olivermuty | Hacker News Reader

My kids asthma wants your commercial car in a service bay, not idling outside a restaurant. I am all for not making a technocratic dystopia but this reasoning seems wrong lol

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I understand! But still, I feel like mechanising these things is an issue, especially with the authoritarian people rising (especially in the US) all over the world. I'm annoyed at idling cars (especially taxis here in Germany) as well, but I feel like the pollution is very minor. Still illegal though.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number-plate_recogni... I agree with the "slippery slope" theme. I would wish for more rules being enforced more. But not if the price is a technocratic law enforcement machine.

That’s the problem. Major polluters have convinced people it’s the small scale production to attack rather than the giant industrial polluters. We also allow incredibly inefficient engines that produce lots of pollution.

How about a pollution credit trading program then? If my efficient car produces way less pollution than your gas-guzzling truck, I should get the room to idle until I reach our agreed max.

A technological snitch program is a weird and messed up outcome when we ignore the base problems.

But, cool technical achievement. I’m scared that a similar parking snitch program is all too easy as well. Car parked 3.5 hours in a 3hr max neighbourhood? Get them fined and get a sweet bounty! Thanks I hate it.

> Major polluters have convinced people it’s the small scale production to attack rather than the giant industrial polluters

It's both. A car idling outside your window is still gonna be an issue even if the planet somehow solve the big stuff.

Maybe the commercial driver has asthma too and needs to run the AC.

Your kid's asthms would appreciate more if there were fewer cars on roads and logistics leaned more on robust public transportation rather than putting the onus on individual household to own and operate multi-tonne vehicles.

New York City has already implemented a congestion surcharge in Manhattan to destroy demand for using personal vehicles, and has a robust public transit system. The only step left would be mandating EVs, and outlawing combustion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_fossil_fuel_vehic...

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