[HN Gopher] Armored Stealth Boat: How to Smuggle Luxury Cars
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       Armored Stealth Boat: How to Smuggle Luxury Cars
        
       Author : Bluestein
       Score  : 36 points
       Date   : 2021-03-14 22:03 UTC (56 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.hisutton.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.hisutton.com)
        
       | jcun4128 wrote:
       | What is happening with these images, CDN.
       | 
       | Amazing concept though the other type of thing being smuggled
       | seems to have a different approach(nearly 100% submerged).
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | > What is happening with these images, CDN.
         | 
         | slow server + progressive jpeg?
        
           | jcun4128 wrote:
           | > progressive jpeg
           | 
           | That's a thing? I didn't know you could do that on purpose
           | thought it was a side effect of slow internet.
           | 
           | I've used CSS blurring before/loading different sized images
           | but I think this is different when reading up on it.
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | >That's a thing? I didn't know you could do that on purpose
             | thought it was a side effect of slow internet.
             | 
             | Well if you don't have it enabled, the area that is shown
             | would be proportional to how much you have loaded (eg. if
             | you have 50% of the picture downloaded then the top half of
             | the picture will be shown, but the other half would be
             | blank/transparent). If you have it enabled, then you might
             | have the whole picture shown at 5% downloaded, but it will
             | be super blurry, and as you download more it gets
             | progressively more detailed.
             | 
             | I don't think the author/publisher purposely used this as
             | an effect, it's just an overloaded server and whatever
             | image editing software he used had progressive jpeg
             | enabled.
        
       | crazysim wrote:
       | Very slow speeds so here's the archive.org mirror.
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20210301050115/http://www.hisutt...
        
       | Bluestein wrote:
       | "The smuggling of cars into china has been a widespread problem
       | since at least the 1980s, and slowly evolved into an arms race
       | between the authorities and the smugglers. The ultimate smuggling
       | boat is known as the Armored Stealth Boat (ASB). You read that
       | correctly; this may sound too James Bond to be real, but it is."
        
         | p1mrx wrote:
         | The ultimate smuggling boat _that we know about_.
        
         | trhway wrote:
         | what impressive is it looks like a professional design and
         | construction, not DYI like for example those Columbian drug
         | smuggling submarines.
        
           | 1996 wrote:
           | There is more manufacturing capability in China!
           | 
           | But both the submarine and the ASB are marvelous creations of
           | the human mind to resist the state overreach.
           | 
           | It makes me wonder which technical marvels we are not seeing,
           | and how much bigger China economy could be if only we let
           | innovators freely innovate: selling better submarines to
           | Columbian cartels maybe could lead to better autonomous
           | boats?
        
           | rootsudo wrote:
           | Because they serve different purposes.
        
       | throwaway888abc wrote:
       | Great article and all blog, bookmarked
       | 
       | Some other juice photos
       | 
       | Narco Submarines Covert Shores Guide - updated
       | 
       | http://www.hisutton.com/Narco%20Subs%20101.html
        
       | sneak wrote:
       | Smuggling implies that either the country of export doesn't want
       | it going out, or the country of import doesn't want it coming in.
       | 
       | I was not aware that you're not allowed to buy a car in europe or
       | the US and ship it to China.
       | 
       | What's the background here? I assume you are not? Why is that?
        
         | Nasrudith wrote:
         | China has limits on the importation - in addition to tarrif and
         | requirements like the undercarriage being cleaned of foreign
         | soil they have limits on importing foreign cars as one per
         | person and Chinese residents only. Likely protectionism
         | motivated - it fits with their other foibles resulting in
         | things like having iPhones they built smuggled back into their
         | own country at a marked up price.
        
         | ehwhyreally wrote:
         | Tax is a bitch.
        
         | tolbish wrote:
         | I think you've confused smuggling with trafficking.
        
         | rodgerd wrote:
         | As it says in the fine article, China wants to encourage its
         | own luxury and performance car making segment by restricting
         | foreign imports.
        
         | ufmace wrote:
         | I think China has pretty strict limits and taxes on importing
         | vehicles as a way to support local manufacturers.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | > Smuggling implies that either the country of export doesn't
         | want it going out, or the country of import doesn't want it
         | coming in.
         | 
         | Not really. You can be smuggling to evade taxes, eg. cigarette
         | smuggling.
        
         | sudosysgen wrote:
         | It's often because the cars are stolen or to avoid paying
         | import tax.
        
         | AnimalMuppet wrote:
         | It may be that you are not allowed to buy a car in Europe or
         | the US and ship it to China _without paying Chinese import
         | duties on it_.
        
         | eptcyka wrote:
         | I think China was trying to levy something like a a 50% or a
         | 100% import tax on imported vehicles.
        
           | baybal2 wrote:
           | Yes, luxury imported vehicles are taxed anywhere in between
           | 200% to 300%
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-14 23:00 UTC)