Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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I mean, outside of the fact that things that “could be” in effect “aren’t currently”, Germany is not America. I’ll be making some broad sweeping cultural observations, but they’re mine alone as a German-American who is a citizen of both countries.
Germans don’t like using credit cards because of the implications of a log of transactions that could be tracked. They don’t like digitized forms. GDPR is a thing. Also, public consumption of alcohol is, by and large, legal in Germany so I’m assuming you meant “private property” when you said you could be fined for drinking a few centimeters off. Jaywalking is a crime, but generally there is so much pedestrian infrastructure that it’s not a big deal to find a crosswalk. You’d be more likely to get a “HALLOOOO?!” from a nosy German who is upset that you’re not following the rules than you will any sort of fine, though it isn’t outside of the question.
Not sure where your examples are coming from. These things are already illegal in America. We already have cameras all over the place in most urban areas. Going a bit over the speed limit? Speed cameras. Drinking beer in public? Public intoxication. Peeing in a bush? Indecent exposure and sex offender list if you’re near a school. Dropping a fry on the ground? Littering. Jaywalking because the nearest crosswalk is two miles down the road so it adds four miles of travel just to legally cross a road? Loud horns in your ears and police questioning at best, death at worst.
Americans already lost the fight against privacy and freedom thanks to Big Auto and Big Tech. Germany and the EU commission are why some American companies even care about privacy at all. Big Tech continues to get their anticompetitive practices challenged and fined in Europe, so I really doubt that what you’re saying would come to pass there without a significant cultural change.
So not only did America lose, but those industries have also convinced the majority of Americans that fifteen minute cities are “communism” and that Amazon and Facebook should know if your daughter is pregnant before you do. Big tech is already doing plenty of evil things without AI. The problem is the law and culture, not the technology.
In Germany you only have to use a crosswalk, if it is within 30m of where you want to cross, or 40m in case of a traffic light. Otherwise you can cross wherever you want. Obviously you got to do so in a safe manner.
These cameras read license plates, not faces so we should save those concerns for when they force pedestrians and cyclists to wear large, easily identifiable license plates.