There is a fine line between a five-star taxi ride experience and a hostage situation. The YouTube channel “To Be Driven” seems to be drifting directly over that line at 120 miles per hour.
Roman, the PRO driver on the channel, has turned “ordering an Uber” into hiring a fighter jet because to him, speed limits are polite suggestions.
If you have not been to this corner of the internet yet, let me paint a picture. Roman, a young American content creator, poses as a rideshare driver, turning up in cars that look less like taxis and more like racetrack vehicles. We’re talking BMW M4S, high-horsepower monsters and other aggressive machines that seem extremely offended by low speeds.
This crazy driver is a man on a mission. Having already been permanently banned by Uber, he is working his way through getting banned on every taxi-hailing app in North America. We have no choice but to respect his commitment to the cause.
The Doomed 42-Year-Old Female Lyft Passenger in the BMW M4
In one of the channel’s most-watched videos, our lunatic PRO driver poses as a Lyft driver, arriving to pick up an unsuspecting 42-year-old woman. Now, usually, when you order a rideshare, you expect a silver 2014 Toyota Prius that smells faintly of vanilla air freshener.
Instead, she is met by a growling, aggressively low BMW M4.
The lady climbs into the supercar, understandably surprised but very willing to roll with it. They engage in some lively, pleasant small talk. The vibes are cool, and the passenger princess is relaxed.
Then Roman initiates phase one: The Whiplash Waltz.
Without warning, he begins flooring and abruptly releasing the throttle. The car makes a series of violent, rapid jerking movements. The passenger is sent half-jumping off her seat, her life flashing before her eyes as her seatbelt desperately tries to justify its production budget.
Before she can even process what’s happening, the driver looks over with faux-innocence and asks if she’s okay. Before she can even reply, he drops a gear.
The car launches, and traffic begins zooming past the windows like bullets in a sci-fi movie. At this point, the woman’s posture is very telling. She coils in her seat with her legs tightly crossed and hands clenched to the seat in a white-knuckled death grip. Her hair is absolutely messed up by the wind rushing through the cabin.
In a classic display of Stockholm Syndrome, she actually admits that she likes the speed. Roman takes this as an invitation to initiate phase two: The Drift Detour.
He whips the BMW into a clearing and proceeds to do endless, dizzying rounds of high-speed drifting. While the car is sliding sideways in a cloud of vaporised rubber, Roman asks the ultimate customer service question: “Are you going to sue me?”
Our passenger promises she won’t, but mentions she is now late for her appointment.
“Let’s fix that,” he says.
What follows is another J-Turn getaway driving manoeuvre and more breakneck speed, sending the poor woman into yet another spiral of controlled madness. By the time she reaches her destination, she is completely breathless.
A Worsening Lunacy on American Roads
This fake taxi ride is not an isolated incident. This mystery driver has taken Tinder dates, random strangers, and unsuspecting clients on hazardous, high-speed tours across the United States. He is part of a captivating entertainment corner on YouTube where professional (or at least highly confident) drivers prank people by simulating a near-death experience in a supercar.
As a viewer, you experience a cocktail of emotions while watching this. You feel a deep empathy for the unsuspecting person sitting in the passenger seat, before clicking on the next video to see it happen to someone else.
But let us take a moment of silence for the real casualties here: the rear tyres. The rear wheels bear the absolute brunt of this lunacy. For car enthusiasts, watching these videos can be pure pain. While half the audience is enjoying the adrenaline rush, the other half is cringing at the thick white smoke and heavy black skid marks left on the road.
The latter are the same sensitive heads who get really angry when a brand-new Mercedes G-Wagon gets blown up or smashed into a wall in a Hollywood blockbuster movie.
“To Be Driven” proves that if you are looking for peak comedy and gripping content, safety goes right out the window.
Disclaimer: Please do not try this in your 2008 Honda Civic. Your insurance agent is stressed enough as it is.
