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Show HN: Report idling vehicles in NYC (and get a cut of the fines) with AI

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194 points rafram | 2 comments | 22 Jun 25 17:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.443s | source

New York City has this cool program that lets anyone report idling commercial vehicles and get a large cut of the fines [1]. It's been in the news recently [2].

I've filed a few reports, and I found the process frustrating and error-prone. The forms are fiddly, there's way too much information that needs to be copied down from the video by hand, you have to use a third-party app to take a timestamped video and a different app to compress it before uploading, and approximately none of it can be done on your phone — the device you probably used to record your video in the first place.

I built Idle Reporter to make filing complaints into a five-minute process that you can do entirely from your phone.

Idle Reporter uses AI to automatically extract all the required information and screenshots from the video and fill out the form for you. It compresses your video, adds the required screenshots, and uploads the whole thing to DEP. All you have to do is log in, give it a final check, and submit.

The AI features cost me money to run, so I put those behind a subscription ($5.99/month, which can pay for itself after a single report). There's a one-week free trial so you can test it out. All the other features — including a fully-featured timestamp camera, which other apps charge for, and an editor for filling out the forms manually and submitting in a single step — will be free forever, as a service to the community.

The app is iOS-only for now — part of this was an exercise in learning SwiftUI in my spare time.

Check it out on the App Store and let me know what you think!

[1]: https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/environment/idling-citizens-air...

[2]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-city-idling-law-report...

Show context
9cb14c1ec0 ◴[22 Jun 25 20:12 UTC] No.44349900[source]▶
Spying on your friends, neighbors, and family? Nothing to see here, just old Soviet style repression tactics.
replies(9): >>44350020 #>>44350038 #>>44350045 #>>44350339 #>>44350375 #>>44350619 #>>44350700 #>>44352312 #>>44355313 #
userbinator ◴[22 Jun 25 20:27 UTC] No.44350020[source]▶
Orwell was right.
replies(2): >>44350100 #>>44350528 #
kennywinker ◴[22 Jun 25 20:39 UTC] No.44350100[source]▶
You mean when he said “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism, as I understand it.” or something else?
replies(2): >>44352733 #>>44354047 #
carlosjobim ◴[23 Jun 25 05:39 UTC] No.44352733[source]▶
He famously wrote a book about a totalitarian society, where people were encouraged to spy on their neighbors and report them.
replies(1): >>44352761 #
kennywinker ◴[23 Jun 25 05:44 UTC] No.44352761[source]▶
Noticing a car is idling on a public street isn’t really spying, is it?
replies(1): >>44353462 #
nandomrumber ◴[23 Jun 25 08:01 UTC] No.44353462[source]▶
Noticing a vehicle idling on a street isn’t the same thing as noticing a vehicle idling on a street, taking video evidence of it, reporting it and providing a copy of the video with the expectation of getting a cut of the fine.

Is it?

replies(1): >>44356184 #
amanaplanacanal ◴[23 Jun 25 14:31 UTC] No.44356184[source]▶
Honestly, even without a financial incentive, I've thought about getting a dashcam to record the fuckheads "rolling coal" in my city and reporting them. Some behavior is so anti social that yes, it should be reported.
replies(1): >>44357993 #
1. carlosjobim ◴[23 Jun 25 17:25 UTC] No.44357993[source]▶
Why not go into the rough neighborhoods and report the people who are threatening the lives and health of people? You can even join the police force if you wish to work effectively against anti social behaviour.
replies(1): >>44359283 #
2. amanaplanacanal ◴[23 Jun 25 19:43 UTC] No.44359283[source]▶
I would guess the folks having their lives and property threatened are already reporting that, if they think the police will help them. If they won't, I'm not sure how me adding to the reports is going to help.