Watch the Hum Rider in action below.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had the Hum Rider as your commuter vehicle that takes you straight over the traffic on the N1 as you head in to work? To all around you it looks like you are driving a standard Jeep Grand Cherokee but then at the push of a button the Hum Rider’s undercarriage lifts 2.7m into the air and you can straddle the traffic.
The Hum Rider is a very creative marketing stunt that was conceptualised by viral marketing agency Thinkmodo to promote American communications and wireless internet company, Verizon Telematic’s Hum platform.
According to Autoblog, this platform plugs into a car’s on-board diagnostics port and for $10 (about R130) a month “provides vehicle diagnostics, roadside assistance, location tracking, and speed and geo-fencing alerts.”
Thinkmodo co-founder James Percelay said that they wanted to represent the upgrade Hum brings to cars… so the car literally (and by this we mean literally (not figuratively literally) goes up.
The Hum Rider weighs 3 855kg, almost double a standard Grand Cherokee and had to be fitted with heavy-duty truck tyres to support the extra weight.
Underneath the is a bonnet gas-powered Honda generator that powers hydraulic pumps and 91m of hydraulic lines that operate everything, from the lift mechanism, steering, braking and power to the drivetrain.
It was also fitted with four cameras underneath the chassis that allow the driver to see and clear what’s beneath him.