Three pickup trucks lined up on a highway in front of a Tesla in Phoenix, Arizona, to form a rolling roadblock. The Tesla driver, a computer scientist, moved lane to wait for them to let him past. What came next was unexpected: a video on social media from the incident in June shows a belch of acrid black smoke from the engine of one of the trucks, enveloping the electric car following behind.
The Tesla driver had been caught by a “rolling coal”, a deliberate modification of a diesel engine to increase the engine’s horsepower – while also dramatically increasing pollution. It is also illegal: Sinister Diesel, one of the companies selling “defeat devices” used to roll coal, agreed to pay a $1m (£780,000) fine this week for breaking environmental laws.
