Jimmy Kimmel Live / ABC
Currently, driverless Waymo taxis are only operating in parts of Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix but it is only a matter of time before these driverless taxis take over the nation as it represents a significantly cheaper alternative to paying a driver for their time.
Because Waymo is currently only on those 4 major cities, it is still far from a household name. Most Americans have never seen a Waymo in person and in this instance that includes Jimmy Kimmel‘s Aunt Chippy (real name Concetta Potenza) who was the victim of Jimmy’s Waymo prank on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The premise of the Waymo prank is simple: she gets into a vehicle with a driver who throws her off the proverbial scent of the trail by burping then saying he has to use the restroom before the car takes off on its own. It is at this point she starts losing her mind in the way only an elderly aunt from Brooklyn could:
For some reason, it’s reassuring to see that Jimmy Kimmel can still pull off a prank on his relatives despite them knowing that he has been pranking everyone in the family for years, and has been engaged in a years-long prank war with Matt Damon. In spite of that, she was immediately sucked into the Waymo prank and couldn’t wrap her mind around the car driving on its own.
What I don’t fully understand though is how she didn’t recognize there were not immediate threats on the road when the car was navigating traffic safely. At some point, you have to take stock of what’s going on around you and realize that the car is acting as it was intended to. Then again, I’m not sure how I’d feel if I went into cryo sleep for 30 years, woke up, and had to ride in whatever the future of transportation is three decades from now.
I will say, I’ve only ever seen Waymo’s in traffic but it is jarring every time I’ve pulled up next to one and haven’t seen a driver in the front seat. The level of trust put in their technology isn’t a level I’m ready to reach, just yet.