Dirk the Daring sent this:
Note the quotes around ‘Mom’.
All we’ve come up with is some sort of Uber/Lyft reference, but?? Of course it IS The New Yorker [Magazine] (there’s a whole thing about whether it gets that last word or not).
This Lyft is Uber-confusing
Comics I Don't Understand 
Maybe she called an Uber and then was surprised to find her mom was the driver. Even now, out on her own, her mom is still driving her around.
Tenuous, but it’s all I’ve got.
Equally tenuous, but I think the line she’s delivering to the driver is supposed to misdirect whoever is listening to the other end of her mobile phone conversation.
P.S. Meanwhile, the look on the driver’s face indicates that she’s thinking of that classic New Yorker caption: “CWAA!“
P.P.S. Just over a dozen years ago Robert Mankoff discussed universal captions in the New Yorker, and two weeks later he published some of the suggestions made by readers. The classic “CWAA!” is only one of many excellent possibilities.
Uber sends you the name (work name) of the driver that has accepted your trip. So maybe this driver goes by the name “Mom”?
I think she looks too young to be this passenger’s actual mother. But she could be an actual young mother wanting to celebrate that status. Or using it as a joke.
Here’s a thought — I’m not sold on this but it’s my best guess.
I’m thinking this is actually the young woman’s mother. And Mom knows her daughter needs a ride.
But daughter is treating Mom like a Lyft driver — addressing the person by reading her name off of the app, explaining immediately where she needs to go, etc.
Of all the ideas so far (including mine), I like Powers’ solution @5 best, but if so, it really justifies the mother’s strafing “CWAA” glance.
P.S. The blog where CWAA first appeared no longer exists, but the original 16 examples (most of which are not really that convincing) can be read on the Wayback Machine.
P.P.S. A third-party follow-up article provides 20 non-New Yorker examples, which in general work much better.
P.P.S. Both of those links are NSFW. You have been warned.
The problem with a driver using the name Mom is that she wouldn’t have a clue where Kayla’s house is.
My wife’s New Yorker subscription ran out around 5 months ago. They just quit sending magazines & turned off the internet account.
Maybe she called her mother to pick her up, but pretended Mom was a Lyft driver so she’d seem ‘cool’ or ‘mature’ to Kayla?
I have no clue…..
Yeah, it’s the daughter doing the Uber thing. (However, this should be two way questioning, not 1, shouldn’t it?)
I find the background confusing because it looks like a town center.
Oh wait, that could be the scenario; the daughter’s in town and calls Mom for a ride. Mom arrives and the daughter does the schtick, including holding the phone so it faces her and so she can pretend to do an identity check.
I wondered if this were a reference to how we used to get around collect calls for notifying parents in the days of payphone.
“At the time, please state your name.”. beep
“CouldYouPickMeUpAtStevesAtFiveThirty?”
Ring
“Collect call from CouldYouPickMeUpAtStevesAtFiveThirty?. Do you accept the charges?”
“No.”
I sort of thought that the younger woman, being young, has difficulty communicating in person, all communication is done using the cell. What doesn’t make sense though is the question mark and the quote marked “mom.” In the good old days when we used landlines, you couldn’t be certain who answered the phone. But with cell phones, usually it’s the same person who always answers.