This has been going on for at least 15 years. But it is a wider scale than just the Border patrol. Police agencies monitoring cameras and working with other agencies to notify in advance of people coming through. Flagged plates are pulled over. IIRC, "Desert snow" was part of this. [1]
I suppose the new thing now is the bandwidth and tech to watch more cars. Local police forces and cities are purchasing more readers and installing them on cars and around town in certain bottlenecks. In my town there has been a bit of an uproar...but about 25 years too late (my area started this after 9/11).
Certain highways have always been worse than others though. Back in 2013 I was working with Trinitylabs in Portland developing 3d printers (For those of you in Ruby on rails this was Ezmobius' company). After working for a week doing 15hr days getting 3d printers assembled I was driving home along the Columbia river gorge but I was on the highway on the Washington side. I was pulled over in the middle of nowhere at ~10pm for going 8mph over the limit. After a bit of talking and letting him know what I was doing..including a 20min conversation about 3d printing on the side of the highway in literally the middle of nowhere [2] the officer tells me "I only pulled you over because you are on a known drug running highway...and you are driving an Audi which is a known drug runner car."
A former girlfriend of mine had a picture of her mother holding a Raccoon. I asked her mother about it and she said that they lived out in the woods in Minnesota and they found it on the porch when it was a baby. The mother had died or something so they kinda raised it. It was free roaming in/out of the house but they could hold it and it would also get into their food. She mentioned one time it ate a bunch of mixed nuts...but didn't like one type so it left all those in the bowl. Another time it ate an entire pie...but left her one piece ("so she wouldn't get angry").
She did say it was never really a "pet"...more like a wild animal that sometimes acted like one.
This would have been in the late 70s early 80s by my guess on her age in the pictures.
They have a lot in common with housecats, except that they are more clever. Decades ago we heard a crunch crunch sound from the rear mudroom. We looked and saw a raccoon reaching in and eating dry cat out of a box with the cat looking on enviously.
Camping I heard a crunching sound, looked out from the tent to see a racoon helping itself to granola in the back of the car. Lock your doors.
My dad got afib from doing a 24 hour challenge and I’m so glad I never participated. Be careful out there.
The only marathon I ever did was cram for a couple finals and playing computer games between them and after. I was working on 72 hours when the blue on my monitor started to ripple and decided it was time to go to bed… almost an hour after it started.
I have been noticing similar but not "loud muffler" so to speak but instead it is noticeable lacking maintenance on "mid-high" value cars.
There have been a lot of cars I consider "nice" but have squealing wheel bearings, squeaking brakes and/or engine tune issues which point to general lack of maintaining the vehicle.
Good to see I am not the only one seeing this warning sign.
When I last priced the equipment it wasn't that bad costwise. In my case though it was only worth it to get rid of the whole "dealing with tire shops" issue. A close friend owns a used car dealership and they bought the mounter and balancer. IIRC...it just needed a 240v line.
I have also lost days waiting for tire shops and alignment...as those are the only 2 things I don't do myself.
A tire machine is life changing in a good way if you have a lot of cars you're responsible for. China is starting to make mid-market ones (simple pneumatic ones that are powered bug geared to home use rather than professional like the ~$1k electric machines) for ~$400ish that I'd take seriously if I was in the market
Once you have a tire machine you'll spend more time at the tire shop (outside business hours, lol) because their trash pile will be your best source for reasonably new used tires. They sell a lot of sets of 4 when 2 would do.
Bushings and suspension parts will likely have similar (or possibly worse) wear than an IC based car due to the extra weight.
Brakes a bit less possibly since you can use the regenerative braking but this also depends largely on the driver and situation.
*This is an assumption based on my experience with cars in general and doing my own repairs/maintenance not a slam on EVs.
Certain highways have always been worse than others though. Back in 2013 I was working with Trinitylabs in Portland developing 3d printers (For those of you in Ruby on rails this was Ezmobius' company). After working for a week doing 15hr days getting 3d printers assembled I was driving home along the Columbia river gorge but I was on the highway on the Washington side. I was pulled over in the middle of nowhere at ~10pm for going 8mph over the limit. After a bit of talking and letting him know what I was doing..including a 20min conversation about 3d printing on the side of the highway in literally the middle of nowhere [2] the officer tells me "I only pulled you over because you are on a known drug running highway...and you are driving an Audi which is a known drug runner car."
At least he was honest :)
[1] https://www.engadget.com/2014-09-09-police-seizure-black-asp...
[2] We were so far out that he his radio wouldn't work to contact his dispatch...he had to use a cellphone :)