UK-based Meta techie alarmed after Delhi Uber driver sent ‘murder threat’ translated by Google

Screenshot of the translated message Arnav Gupta shared on X.

A London-based Meta employee’s routine Uber ride in Delhi turned into a moment of sheer panic after a mistranslated message suggested a “threat of murder.” Arnav Gupta, who works with Meta, shared the experience in a post on X that quickly went viral.

Gupta wrote that he had booked an Uber ride on November 21 and asked his Uber driver to wait for two minutes while he stepped out of his house. Moments later, he received a notification from Uber that read: “I am facing the threat of murder.”

“A chill ran down my spine. It is Delhi after all. Anything can happen,” Gupta recalled, describing how he frantically opened the app to check the chat for context. The driver had earlier replied “OK” to his request to wait, but the alarming message appeared exactly two minutes later.

Gupta soon discovered the message was a Google-translated version of the original text. Clicking “see original” revealed the truth: the driver was simply informing him that he was waiting in front of Mother Dairy. “I heaved the biggest sigh of relief in a long, long time,” the Meta techie wrote, adding that his UK-based account likely triggered the English translation in notifications.

Today I made my Uber driver wait for 2 min as I was getting out of my house. And suddenly I received a notification from Uber "I am facing the threat of murder"

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Strap in for a thrilling story pic.twitter.com/Xmvio9QuIQ — Arnav Gupta (@championswimmer) November 21, 2025

The post sparked a wave of humorous reactions online. One X user joked: “I have heard a rumour that Netflix bought rights to this story. Arijit is going to sing the title song.” Another commented: “What a plot twist, I did not see that coming at all.” Others called it “one of the most hilariously terrifying stories” they had come across.