This is classic Vice journalism of turning a non-story into a puffed up scare-piece all for a sexy, sharable title. I would really like to see less of their poor excuse for journalism (Motherboard included) on HackerNews because links like these really bring down overall quality. In the HN guidelines, the site lays out a call for stories that go beyond superficially interesting and provoke something deeper. Vice content rarely does this, and when it does, it is often built on the back of sensationalism or shoddy journalistic integrity.
This is a non-story, the real story is when autonomous vehicles deliver and distribute drugs, since auto-pilot, ability to lock and unlock cars from whole another city etc. I would be surprised if the Cartels do not employ autonomous fleet for their distribution.
Why people use the taxi is their business. All innovations including cellphones, automobiles, internet etc. etc. must have helped drug dealing and other illegal stuff.
I am curious how asset forfeiture laws apply to this.<p>With taxis and other livery drivers, the driver does not personally own the vehicle.<p>Seems like quite a risk for any Uber/Lyft driver.
I had a trip on Lyft that was almost certainly a drug deal. Picked up a woman at the holiday inn near fisherman's be wharf, drove down to the tl, circled two blocks, another person got in, drove back to fisherman's wharf. I only realized what had happened later that day, or I would have called it in to ban the passenger (Lyft has a zero tolerance drug policy).