Waymo is testing Gemini as an in-car assistant for its robotaxis, TechCrunch reported on December 24th after researcher Jane Manchun Wong found a 1,200-line system prompt inside the company's app code. The unreleased assistant is designed to answer passenger questions, control some cabin features such as temperature, lighting, and music, and reassure riders without pretending to be the vehicle's driving system. The prompt also tells Gemini to avoid explaining real-time driving decisions, commenting on incidents, or speaking as if it were the Waymo Driver.

The cabin becomes a divided machine. One system moves the car through traffic, another talks to the passenger, and both are kept separate by language rules. That separation is meant to protect trust, but it also produces a strange form of company speech. The rider sits in a vehicle without a driver and hears an assistant trained to be useful, calm, and evasive at the exact point where fear might appear. The ride is no longer silent automation. It is automation with a host, a script, a list of forbidden answers, and a voice that can dim the lights while declining to explain why the car slowed down.