Mercedes Thieves Showed Just How Vulnerable Car-Sharing Can Be

[cwerdna]

These aren't autonomous nor robotaxis but the same issue could happen with robotaxis (esp. if they're nice cars and have steering wheels and pedals) if the customers aren't background checked or it's turned off as a test/temporarily.

"After Car2Go eased its background checks, 75 of its vehicles were stolen in one day. "
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Once they relaxed their background checks in Chicago, 75 cars were stolen by folks using fake or stolen credit cards. They previously had some manual background checks that resulted in friction and a 1 or 2 day lag (vs. none for hailing an Uber or Lyft).

Car2Go sent several workers to retrieve the vehicles, only to find that a group of thieves had claimed them as their own. Some blocked the vehicles in to prevent repossession; others threatened the company’s employees, according to someone with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
...
“Some were totaled, some were abandoned. There were even some that were gutted out.”
...
After its failed attempts to recover the cars itself, Car2Go asked the Chicago Police Department for help. By midweek the company suspended service in Chicago altogether, an acknowledgment that it couldn’t figure out how to distinguish legitimate customers from the group of thieves. Kelton says about 75 cars in total were compromised. All were eventually recovered, though some only after being stripped of doors, seats, and other parts.