Go see Hong Kong sometime, same thing, massive screens taking up entire sides of enormous tower blocks. Shenzhen too.
It's not everyday, but when the 'Jing has a bad day, it's really something else. I don't know how people live there, it's terrible and you can just feel it damaging your lungs. It encourages this positive feedback loop too - the pollution is so bad you want to take a car everywhere, which of course contributes to the pollution!
I wouldn't be surprised if a fair portion of uber's success in CN is due to people not wanting to walk in the toxic smog. Would be interesting to see a graph of pollution index vs. ride numbers.
[edit: positive not negative]
Also, uber isn't that successful in the jing, taxis are cheap enough (and ya, there is an uber-like app for them), and if you want to go upscale there is didi zhuanche (same app). You either take a car or a taxi, if you can afford $5-$10, or a bus/subway/bike if you can't, pollution doesn't really affect that.
Certainly I'd spend a couple bucks more to sit for an hour (or more!) in an audi or VW over a hyundai..
Taxi is quite ok when the air is really bad. You can only filter so much air in a car, and it's not like they are putting in giant HEPA filters. The main problem I have is sleeping with the window closed when the air is bad...even with the air filter going, it is very hard to sleep soundly.
Out of interest, why do you have issues sleeping with the window closed? Frankly, it would be extremely rare for me to sleep with the windows open no matter where I am.