If you’ve watched late-night TV for more than five minutes over the last decade, you know that Jimmy Kimmel has a specific, almost pathological obsession with one thing: pranking his Aunt Chippy. Most of the time, it’s relatively low-stakes—hiring a fake massage therapist or putting a car in her living room. But things took a turn into the future recently. The Jimmy Kimmel driverless car segment wasn't just another bit; it was a bizarre collision between cutting-edge technology and a woman who still treats a remote control like it’s a bomb.
Honestly, the sight of a 85-year-old woman being "kidnapped" by an empty Jaguar I-PACE is objectively funny. It’s also a little terrifying if you think about it from her perspective. Imagine being Chippy. You’re told you’re being picked up for a nice lunch. You get into a car. There is a man in the driver's seat. Then, he hops out, and the car just... starts moving.
The Prank That Put Aunt Chippy in a Waymo
The logistics of this were actually pretty clever. Kimmel didn't just toss her into a random autonomous vehicle. He teamed up with his cousins Micki and Sal to stage the whole thing using a Waymo, the robo-taxi service that’s become a common sight on the streets of Los Angeles.
They hired an actor to play a driver who "accidentally" left his phone or something and hopped out at a light. Suddenly, Chippy is alone in the back of a car that is steering itself through LA traffic.
You’ve seen the video. The scream is primal. It starts with "Oh my God!" and quickly descends into a flurry of bleeped-out Italian-American profanity that would make a longshoreman blush. She’s yelling at the dashboard. She’s threatening Jimmy’s life. She’s demanding the car take her to the studio so she can kill "that little bastard."
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Why this segment actually mattered
It wasn't just about the laughs, though that’s why we clicked. This segment was a massive cultural moment for autonomous driving. Waymo has been trying to normalize the idea of "driverless" for years. Usually, they do this with slick, polished ads featuring calm tech bros or families smiling while the steering wheel spins itself.
Kimmel’s approach was different. By putting a skeptical, loud, and very human senior citizen in the car, he showed what the actual "onboarding" process looks like for the rest of us. If an 85-year-old who thinks the car is possessed by demons can survive a trip through Hollywood, maybe the rest of us can handle a ride to the airport.
Jimmy Kimmel, Waymo, and the Marketing of Autonomy
This wasn't Kimmel’s first rodeo with self-driving tech. Back in 2018, he did a similar (though less aggressive) bit with Guillermo. They put Guillermo in a Chrysler Pacifica under the guise of filming a commercial for a "meat-flavored energy drink."
- The 2018 Bit: Focused on the "cool" factor and safety.
- The 2024 Bit: Focused on the sheer absurdity and the "fright" factor.
- The Reality: Both were essentially massive, unpaid (or paid, depending on who you ask) advertisements for Alphabet’s Waymo.
When the Jimmy Kimmel driverless car clip went viral, it did more for Waymo's brand awareness than a million-dollar Super Bowl ad. People weren't talking about LIDAR or neural networks. They were talking about whether or not Aunt Chippy was going to have a heart attack.
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The Friction Between Late Night and Tesla
While Kimmel seems to have a cozy relationship with Waymo, his relationship with the other big name in self-driving—Tesla—is... let's say "complicated."
In early 2025, Kimmel found himself in a heated back-and-forth with Elon Musk. During his monologue, Kimmel made some pointed jokes about Tesla's stock price dropping and even seemed to mock the vandalism of Tesla vehicles. Musk, never one to let a joke go, took to X (formerly Twitter) to call Kimmel an "unfunny jerk."
This matters because it highlights the two different paths autonomous tech is taking in the public eye. Waymo is the "safe," slow-rolling Google project that shows up on late-night TV for pranks. Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) is the lightning rod for political and cultural debate. Kimmel has clearly picked a side, and it’s the one with the spinning sensors on the roof of a Jaguar.
The technical reality behind the laughs
For those who actually care about how the car worked during the prank:
Waymo uses a suite of sensors including LIDAR, cameras, and radar. Unlike Tesla’s vision-only approach, Waymo’s cars are geofenced. They know exactly where they are in Los Angeles because they have high-definition maps of every curb and stoplight. When Chippy was "trapped," the car was following a pre-determined path to a destination controlled by the production team.
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Dealing With the "Staged" Allegations
Look, it’s TV. There’s always a debate about how much of this is real. Critics online have pointed out that putting an 85-year-old woman in a driverless car without her consent might be a liability nightmare for ABC and Disney.
But if you know Chippy’s history on the show, you know that her reactions aren't exactly "acted." She’s been consistent for twenty years. The fear in her eyes when she realizes the driver is gone is 100% authentic Brooklyn-bred panic. Whether or not she signed a waiver after she stopped screaming is a different story.
What You Should Know Before Trying a Driverless Car
If the Jimmy Kimmel driverless car segment made you want to try one yourself, there are a few things to keep in mind so you don't end up screaming like Aunt Chippy:
- Check the Coverage: As of now, these services are mostly limited to cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, and parts of LA.
- Trust the Screen: Most autonomous cars have a screen in the back that shows you exactly what the car "sees." It’s actually quite calming once you see the little digital ghosts of pedestrians and other cars.
- Emergency Buttons: There is always a "pull over" button. You aren't actually trapped.
- Don't Prank Your Elders: Seriously. Unless you have a production budget and a legal team like Jimmy, maybe don't put your grandmother in a car with no driver.
The intersection of celebrity and technology is always weird. Kimmel using a robotaxi to scare his relative is peak 2020s entertainment. It’s funny, it’s slightly invasive, and it makes us all wonder how much longer we’ll actually be the ones behind the wheel.
If you’re interested in seeing the tech for yourself without the late-night drama, your best bet is to download the Waymo app and see if you’re in a service area. Just make sure the "driver" doesn't hop out at the first red light—unless you’re looking for your own viral moment.
Next Steps for You:
If you want to dig deeper into the actual safety data of these vehicles compared to human drivers, you can check out the latest safety reports from the NHTSA. Alternatively, if you just want to see more of Chippy, search for the "Aunt Chippy Massage" segment on YouTube—it’s a classic for a reason.