We know connected cars are gaining traction because of these connected car and autonomous driving April Fool’s Joke news stories. Verizon’s Hum service can be called for life questions with a CarTalk style mechanic, a news Lexus shows the ultimate driver connectedness, Grüber offers a ride service for foodies and there is an autonomous RV for you to giggle at.
Call Hum for Life Mechanics
Hum by Verizon, the company’s connected car technology designed to make drivers smarter about their cars, is expanding beyond the world of automobile issues and into other problems you may have in daily life.
“Experts on our mechanics hotline were receiving a whole lot of questions that go well beyond the realm of oil changes and bald tires,” said Roger L. Easton, VP, Verizon. “And we realized that many of those experts actually have insights into more than how to fix that rattle in your car. So we mashed up the two and created ‘Life Mechanics Hotline,’ a toll-free number where a caller gets GPS for their life. When your life takes a wrong turn, Life Mechanics help you recalculate and gives you a better way to go.”
Speaking with our Verizon Life Mechanics, customers receive advice from hum’s certified mechanics about their car troubles and life’s other challenges. The expanded service is intended to help coach callers with typical problems, including career help, financial planning and budgeting, love life and fitness.
Because no consumer question is off-limits, no special training is required to become a Life Mechanic — all one needs is strong opinions and a forceful tone. Life Mechanics will make recommendations about potential steps to address callers’ everyday problems before they become big ones — just like they would with a vehicle.
To get additional information about the new Life Mechanics Hotline service and speak with a Life Mechanic directly, call 844.727.7503. A sample conversation appears below.
Velcroe Lexus Stick-to-Connectedness
From the carbon fiber used to create a lightweight chassis to the special alloys employed in Lexus engines, Lexus works tirelessly to improve vehicles’ performance. Lexus introducing the next advancement in man-machine interface: the Lexus V-LCRO Performance Driving Seat for the Lexus RC F and GS F. The driver must wear a spiffy suit with Velcro on the back to stick to the seat for solid connection to the seat and vehicle.
A Taste of Driving with Grüber
Grubhub, the nation’s leading online and mobile food ordering company, today announced a new product extension that will make it easier for millions of people nationwide to catch a ride. The new offering, called Grüber, marks a new era in ride-sharing, olfactory delight, efficiency and transportation magic. It will allow people who love both the smell of food and new cars, and the delight of a car showing up the moment they need transportation, to hitch a ride with Grubhub’s restaurant delivery drivers.
Grüber utilizes a set of unique assets — Grubhub’s deep expertise in on-demand restaurant logistics and extensive knowledge of delivery and food preparation — to create a best-in-class, easy-to-use product. People can now open the Grubhub app, click on the Grüber button to active the geo-location feature and request a ride. Then, one of Grubhub’s drivers will magically show up.
When riders get in the car, they will enter a world of sensory delights. The faint smell of someone else’s food, controlled by our patented ventilation system to ensure the perfect balance between food fragrance and new car smell, will fill the car with the perfect scent. Concurrently, the food’s presence will keep the seat next to the rider warm and the sample-sized snacks will ensure that riders are never hungry. Best of all, this unique take on the old-fashioned carpool comes at a low cost — and does not require the rider to hold someone else’s dinner! Unless the order is large, of course, in which case seat sharing will be necessary.
Human passengers will generally be dropped off before culinary passengers — unless there’s a risk of the food getting cold before it arrives at a diner’s doorstep. In that case, the driver will have to make a quick stop en route.
“We ensure that hundreds of thousands of diners per day receive the food they’re craving from their favorite local restaurants, so adding riders to the mix is no problem,” said Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub and founder of Grüber. “Our advanced logistics will allow us to deliver people wherever they’re going, faster and easier than any other delivery company — and with the never-before-seen benefit of amazing scents. We’re thrilled to see what our users think!”
Grüber gets you to the places you love from wherever you are, faster than anyone else. Just open the app, enter your destination and we’ll deliver you. Future rollouts include a variety of additional delivery services including transportation by hang glider and yacht, as well as delivery of sloths, ice sculptures, rock bands and Festivus poles.
**Just kidding. We do one thing better than anyone – food ordering and delivery – and we’re sticking to it.
Self- Driving Leisure Travel Vans
Using the latest advancements in software and ultrasonic hardware, engineers from the Pembina Valley have perfected the future of the self-driving vehicle fora fully autonomous RV. Take control with voice commands in our Leisure Travel Vans iPad App and enjoy as your RV takes you to your destination. Hands free, but not humor free..
Last year, we had much better April Fools jokes. During the New York Auto Show Honda used social media to launch the bogus HR-V SLF car with ten different selfie cameras. Other crazy Honda April Fools’ pranks were in 2013 with the Honda Hair trimmer and a DIY car building kit also launched April 1 in 2014.