• floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Rolling coal is the practice of installing a tampering device to pump more diesel into a vehicle’s engine than it can handle, leading it to spew out sooty black clouds of exhaust that pollute the air.

    The practice is sometimes used as a form of anti-environmental protest. Coal rollers, or the drivers who engage in the action, may intentionally target Teslas, Priuses or other electric or hybrid vehicles.

    Some people’s dedication to being an asshole is quite astonishing. Imagine paying money just to be able to spew soot at other people’s electric cars.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s also a practice to used to attack other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclist etc by blowing black soot in your face. Its often dangerous because it creates a smoke screen where you can’t even see the road.

  • donuts@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Good, fuck those guys.

    I’m not against people having trucks or modifying them for performance or off-roading or whatever, but people who modify their truck for no other reason than to pollute more are nothing but fucking assholes.

    • Auzy@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      As long as the performance mods don’t make them louder and they’re driving them at night. Or if they do things like put bigger rims on and then complain about potholes in the roads or park in EV spots.

      Unfortunately though, a lot of these people are peacocking, and many of them only modify their cars to ensure others notice them (which unfortunately also means annoying/inconveniencing others)

      Many of biggest badasses I’ve met when hiking or mountaineering, drive the crappiest cars ever (some of them drive crappy old sedans)

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Wait… Ebay is merely a marketplace where people or vendors use the platform to sell their goods.

    Shouldn’t the individuals be sued?

    Or maybe it’s because they could be in another country, so they go after the platform itself for allowing such devices to be sold?

    • Vode An
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      1 year ago

      Going after the marketplace is a more efficient strategy than playing whack a mole with individual sellers.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        Also being a marketplace they do have a duty to make sure that people are not selling illegal items on their platform.

        Because if platforms didn’t could you imagine how bad the Internet would be for buying things.

        • Vode An
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          1 year ago

          I don’t disagree. I am generally in favor of keeping markets on a short leash. As you said, it could be a lot worse.

          • 520@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            As would the RIAA’s war on piracy. Despite the exhorbitant fines being handed down, I don’t believe they’ve made any profit from them.

        • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          That’s a political bomb though. This accomplishes the same end goal and is a strong enough warning to prevent similar markets popping up in the future

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Well they are illegal, although enforcement is up to the local jurisdiction. If you try to install these in California for instance, you will have a bad day and they can and will impound your vehicle.

    • You999@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Merketplaces can be held liable for third party sellers merchandise as it’s ultimately up to the marketplace to chose what is allowed and prohibited to be sold.

      Imagine a marketplace allowed vendors to sell human slaves and the government tells that marketplace that is very much not okay stop it. If that marketplace continues allowing third party vendors to sell human slaves then that marketplace has now also broken the law along with the third party vendor and potentially even the purchaser depending on how the law was written.

    • Auzy@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Why not go after both?

      They should then request all purchases of the devices, and go after the buyers too.

      As a bonus, a lot of the people buying these are probably wife beaters or toxic f**wits. So, screw protecting them…

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I agree, hitting a couple of these sellers and manufacturers with multi-million dollar fines would be fucking great. They have to go onto X and complain to their drifting buddies that the only way to support Trump would be to bail them out of jail.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Ebay denied the charges in a public statement, saying it has blocked “more than 99.9% the listings for the products cited by the DOJ, including millions of listings each year.”

    A court will determine if that claim is true, but if yes, EBay as a market platform won’t be liable. A 99.9% interception rate would indicate a considerable effort to prevent illicit trades.

    • PlasterAnalyst@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It is true. You will have your listing removed if you try to list something as an emissions defeat device. If you try a second time then your account will be banned.

      I listed a carb exempt factory performance ecu made by the vehicle manufacturer and it was removed for going against the tos.

      Although they do allow universal ecus like mega squirt. I could see performance programmers sneaking through if they avoid specific language. eBay can’t know the specifics of every single item that gets listed.

  • lntl
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    1 year ago

    interesting they’re not going after Amazon for the same thing

    • discodoubloon@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Hopefully reviewers that care will step out and share how crazy the company is. They are full-bore disregarding the entirety of the manual suggesting how to legally sell things.

    • Auzy@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Not yet…

      Sadly, some knobs will go to extreme efforts to try to impress people to be different and stand out. Stuff like this is GENUINELY an attempt to mask their insecurities

  • r0bi@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know about other states, but in Texas they don’t even test diesel emissions during our annual registration / inspection. Totally ridiculous!

  • discodoubloon@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Is this a first posture against Amazon? They’ve been selling fake UL listed (terrible, terrible electrically charged garbage) for years and they have never gotten a take down notice. Clipping on a nightlight outlet face-plate to energized (you can’t turn these off with a light switch) active terminals is the craziest one I’ve soon so far.

    edit: Amazon has sold 100k of these, this should be an insurance nightmare…

    light arcing > corroded metal > more resistance > fire.

    • droans@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      UL is a private organization. They would need to go after Amazon or the sellers themselves.

  • HughJanus
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    1 year ago

    Ebay doesn’t sell anything. It’s just a marketplace. Why wouldn’t they pursue the people and companies actually selling these devices?

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I’d love to see a bounty system for this. If I send my dashcam footage of some asshole rolling coal to the DOT I get a (untaxed) cash reward and the coal-roller gets a large fine and mandatory prius they have to drive for 3 years.