In September, Byrne Hobart sparked a viral Internet discussion when he tweeted about his experience with a DoorDash driver. This driver’s use of generative AI to simulate a non-existent delivery was next level. Hobart posted about the alarming situation on Twitter, drawing attention from users and raising concerns about the platform’s security measures. The post, made on January 4, 2026, at 2:14 PM PST, highlighted the potential vulnerabilities within DoorDash’s delivery system.
Unsurprisingly, in his now-famous tweet, Hobart conceded that the scenario he was outlining wouldn’t be hard to entirely fake. He described the incident on X.com. He acknowledged that the driver likely used a hacked Uber account on a jailbroken phone to carry it out. The driver reportedly accessed an image of Hobart’s front door through a DoorDash feature that shows photos from prior deliveries.
A year later, on December 27 of this year, Hobart tweeted an image of the harrowing incident. This move set off a firestorm of discussion around food delivery service integrity.
“Amazing. DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order (left) at our front door (right).” – Byrne Hobart
DoorDash, facing increasing criticism from the media and the public, issued a statement about their efforts to protect customers and drivers. A spokesperson for the company stated, “We have zero tolerance for fraud and use a combination of technology and human review to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform.” This response sheds light on DoorDash’s commitment to use the best of both automated systems and human oversight in the fight against fraudulent activity.
Users are already protesting by asking how many times these things can occur. Most importantly, they’re waiting to hear what steps DoorDash will take to improve its security practices going forward. Hobart’s experience has highlighted ways our food delivery services could be made vulnerable to attack. It has opened up important discussions on AI technology’s impact on our daily transactions.