DOJ sues eBay for selling ‘rolling coal’ devices; fines could hit $2 billion
Rolling coal is the practice of tampering with a vehicle's emissions control system, causing it to spew black clouds of sooty exhaust.
Coal rolling is the stupidest shit ever in terms of car modifications. You're spending money to modify a vehicle so it will make less power, pollute more, and have reduced longevity.
There is no upside unless you're a massive asshole who likes to smoke screen bystanders, at which point you should be charged for assault with a deadly weapon.
Not only should eBay work harder to stop these mods being sold on their platform, people that roll coal should have their licenses suspended. And yes, they ought to be charged if they ever pull a stunt next to other road users.
Most car modifications are stupid, at least the ones i hear about
Whenever a car or motorcycle passes by that makes a lot of sound, i'm always unsure of whether i should feel bad because the vehicle is obviously damaged, and the driver can't afford to get it fixed, so they have to live with the embarrassment of driving around in an obnoxiously loud vehicle
Or flip them off because they're an asshole that intentionally fucked up their exhaust because "haha car go vroom"
When a friend of mine said he was planning to do that yo his bike, the rest of us unanimously told him we would pour sugar in his gas tank if he did so
Eh, "car go wroom" is something that many drivers find rather enjoyable, me included, but just like with everything in life there are some people who go way overboard with it. It's just that with cars, overboard is also by far the simplest and cheapest way - you do straight pipes, which is exactly what it sounds like, just a direct pipe with absolutely no design or mufflers of any kind. They are ear shatteringly loud.
And for those, you do have the correct reaction.
While this is true, diesels often come from the factory with a conservative one size fits all engine tune.
You can usually make the car more fuel efficient and/or add a bit more power if you do it properly. Potentially you can even make it more reliable. One of the things manufacturers caught up in dieselgate did, is recall cars and give the engine a less polluting engine tune.
Obviously, that's not what most people do. They tune it to have as much power as possible (or if they're idiots roal coal) and are then surprised when the transmission or engine gives out prematurely, and the manufacturer no longer feels the need to honour the warranty.
You know how people say that a new car loses depreciates up to 20% just driving it off the car lot? Stuff like engine tuning is one of the reasons that difference exists. You don't know if the previous owner did stupid shit to the car.
These are the guys that have fuck Greta stickers. I like my environment clean, fuck me right?
Having a truck that rolls coal should lose you your driver's license.
And the truck. At the cost of the owner.
I still don't understand the naming scheme Pro life, rolling coal... it's all in an attempt to make it seem better than it is
Are there really no emission regulations in the USA? Can anyone turn their car into a rolling has chamber, producing as much toxic exhaust as they want?
There are national emissions standards for manufacturers, and some states have additional, more restrictive measures. California basically sets the national standard by being more restrictive. If a manufacturer meets California's requirements they will be able to sell everywhere else in the US as well (this is a broad generalization with caveats but this is a Lemmy post not a thesis)
For vehicle owners vehicle registration requirements vary greatly from state to state. Some states include annual emissions checks with random testing as well. Failing these tests means your vehicle cannot be legally driven on the road. Other states only inspect when the vehicle is initially registered, and only check for the minimum items, such as working lights and a clean title (vehicle titles can be declared "salvage" if they are involved in an accident, and the vehicle goes through a more rigorous inspection to have the title cleared).
The US has been in regulatory capture for… probably longer than I've been alive. States like California are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to regulation. The national government is so beholden to corporate interests that the only reason there are still national regulatory agencies with enforcement authority at all is because the national government is too dysfunctional to change anything. This is life in a burgeoning oligarchy.
Completely against the "rolling coal" idiots, but how is eBay on the hook for what sellers put on their platform if they already remove 99% of it (as claimed) through automation and manual means?
They aren't the seller, but the marketplace. Its basically section 280. They've defended against these kinds of cases before.
Go after the sellers or manufacturers, or put in place a system with fewer loopholes. For instance, in my home state of Maine, emissions aren't even considered, and even a check engine light and gas cap check, the most basic verification, is only required in one county. Elsewhere, their eight-inch lifted truck with off road light bars, tires sticking out ten inches past the wheel arches and a single eight inch exhaust in the flatbed breeze right through the yearly "inspection."
Plus, the cops don't care, and likely do it themselves on their drunk way home to beat the wife.
So with that logic, The Silk Road shouldn't have been shut down because they weren't even manufacturing it.
