Hummer H3 converted into remote controlled vehicle

After this, you'll never have the same mental image when hearing "remote controlled car" again. Ever. Resident engineer and all around madman Dr. James Brighton took a break from his rigorous teaching duties at Cranfield University and whipped up a RC Hummer H3 -- as in, the man converted an actual Hummer H3 into a remotely controlled toy. Amazingly, the conversion was completed in just a month, and it's reportedly able to "climb a 407-millimeter vertical wall, traverse a 40-percent side slope and operate in up to 610-millimeters of water." Hit up the read link for a few more images of this guy having the time of his life.

[Surur @ Mar 18th 2008 5:31PM]

Why did it take him a month when mythbusters does it in 2 hours?

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 18th 2008 5:55PM]

Because on MythBusters they salvage the parts they used from other projects- I'm sure this guy had to fabricate all the parts himself this time around. Also, I'm sure this has more functions than the usual MythBusters RC "car"...

[robert @ Mar 19th 2008 1:06AM]

Words out of my mouth, Surur, words out of my mouth.

[Calce @ Mar 19th 2008 8:33AM]

You cannot compare a mornings work of mythbusters with a months work to reproduce the same product and blame the time difference on "tools" The guy is an engineer for crying out loud. A few days tops. 1 months = big waste of time

[Jeff @ Mar 19th 2008 11:31AM]

because the Mythbuster's "remote control car" tend to be basically a brick on the gas pedal and some rope on the steering rack. - or something that takes up the entire interior of the car.

imagine, just for a second, that this guy did a "good" job in a month, instead of a "hack" job in 4 hours.

I don't know if that's the case, but it sounds "plausible" to me.

[rutsy5 @ Mar 19th 2008 1:32PM]

don't forget this isn't his job. He's one guy working in spare time, not two guys with pro tools and helpers :)

[p3nis @ Mar 18th 2008 5:31PM]

1 mpg highway, 0 city.

[starduck @ Mar 18th 2008 5:32PM]

Mythbusters do it every other episodes, and it takes them 1 morning to achieve it.

[James @ Mar 18th 2008 5:35PM]

Have you seen the shop full of stuff they have? They probably recycle most of the bits from other RC projects. When you have the major parts already built and tested, and when you don't care about preserving the interior of the vehicle being converted, the job goes a lot faster.

Now what's the point of an RC H3, or any H3? That I can't answer.

[Erik @ Mar 18th 2008 5:49PM]

The purpose of the H3 is to go over the mountains and through the woods.
(Assuming the woods have a 610mm deep river)

[PhilxBefore @ Mar 18th 2008 7:08PM]

..to grandmother's house we go!..


@Erik

People were doing that thousands of years before the H3 was even conceived. I'm not sure what you're justifying exactly.

[Jeff @ Mar 19th 2008 11:33AM]

yeah... apparently the H3 is designed to be about as capable as little red riding-hood, but at only 6mpg.

[anonymouspimp @ Mar 18th 2008 5:35PM]

I'd totally make a ramp and jump that bad boy.

[Meltz @ Mar 18th 2008 9:20PM]

Shotgun!

[Peter for the uK @ Mar 18th 2008 5:37PM]

Link it to a GPS system, write some protocols and tada! you never have to go pick up the kids again!

Could this docter have better things to do? like finding cures to disses rather than making a gas guzzin radio controlled truck???!?!

[roflercopterer @ Mar 18th 2008 5:42PM]

Ignoring the ignorance of that question if he were a medical doctor, the article gives us no indication that he is such.

[William @ Mar 18th 2008 5:53PM]

Hey, if he is able to hook this thing up to GPS, and get it to drive itself, Forget the kids; I know a few people over at DARPA that would give him an almost blank check to get these into government humvees'

[polvadis @ Mar 18th 2008 6:35PM]

Getting a car to follow a pre-mapped set of points and aligning them with a GPS receiver is one thing. Making sure the car sees everyone else around and doesn't just go straight through EVERYTHING on it's mapped path, is another. Did you guys see the amount of equipment necessary to achieve this on the DARPA vehicles? Ladar, Radar, Cameras, etc. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

[Reader @ Mar 18th 2008 7:06PM]

I don't think anyone can cure a god dis...

[Jeff @ Mar 19th 2008 11:36AM]

hahahaha that's true; a good diss has no cure.

...but i am interested to know what exactly a gas "guzzin" truck can do. I'm not familiar with that technology.

[MBS @ Mar 18th 2008 5:42PM]

Psshhh... It's a total ripoff of the iPhone...

[Abuzar @ Mar 18th 2008 10:28PM]

Yeah but I bet it doesn't play doom... or blend.

[Sirius @ Mar 19th 2008 3:55AM]

@Abuzar

Yea well if he made the wheels bigger then it can play "Doom" *and* "blend"! Might even play "Quake" too...

[Erik @ Mar 18th 2008 5:45PM]

The antenna for the toy car is bigger than the Hummer's.

[Allen @ Mar 18th 2008 5:49PM]

To Peter for the UK:
He can't cure diseases, thats not his field. He can be called "Doctor" because he has his Ph.D, but his degree is in engineering not medicine.

And what do engineers do? Whip up gadgets like this for us people who don't have a doctorate degree.

As for the H3, I forgive him for doing it because its clearly a "toy," and not a daily driver. Running this thing for 45 minutes uses far less gas than using it for a commute. Its the commuters who drive this thing a block to pick up a gallon of milk that should earn our ire, not a guy making engineering magic.

[E71 @ Mar 18th 2008 5:55PM]

Oh cool, I can run over all the people I've ever had a problem with and blame it on faulty RC chips.

[Carl M @ Mar 19th 2008 2:26AM]

Yeah, I was thinking that a car (esp. a Hummer) makes quite a deadly weapon.

[Chris @ Mar 18th 2008 5:58PM]

I think I found a related story via Google:

http://www.hummerguy.net/hummer-news/uk-tabloid-crashes-full-size-remote-control-hummer-h3

It was probably inevitable.

[whatishalo? @ Mar 18th 2008 6:11PM]

Oh man, don't let my wife see this. The she'd REALLY be able to be a back-seat driver!

[Hung @ Mar 19th 2008 12:41AM]

You make her sit in the back seat?



Nice.

[Jack @ Mar 18th 2008 6:18PM]

dr. james for president anyone?--no one??

[Homeboy @ Mar 18th 2008 6:44PM]

Reads on the label:

http://www.bsieducation.org/Education/furniture/development/Logo0_3.gif

[ED @ Mar 18th 2008 6:47PM]

So what? It doesn't travel through time, does it?

[Wolfticket @ Mar 18th 2008 8:25PM]

Yep, it does. But only forwards.

[ED @ Mar 18th 2008 8:31PM]

At precisely sixty seconds per minute... and without any flashy special effects.
Actually...
*uses RC Hummer to run over RC DeLorean*
take that!

[webon @ Mar 18th 2008 10:33PM]

Yes, But the only power source capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning, a nuclear reaction, or common garbage but you'll need Mr. Fusion for that

[ED @ Mar 18th 2008 10:52PM]

Or perhaps a Mark XII naquadah generator. Oops, here I go mixing my fandoms again.

[Mr. Fusion @ Mar 19th 2008 12:22AM]

Huh, did somebody call for me?

[Sharakar @ Mar 18th 2008 6:49PM]

So, are they gonna sell this in toy's r us or what?

[Fed @ Mar 18th 2008 7:40PM]

Slow news day huh...guess I'll go back to installing SP1

[crunkMonkey101 @ Mar 18th 2008 7:47PM]

When you were a kid, how many times did you have to walk up to your remote controlled car to turn it back over after it flipped? And so you decided to make a remote controlled car out of your H3. Let's think about where you are headed with this.

[Bill @ Mar 18th 2008 8:17PM]

Yeah, I'm also waiting for the follow-up post talking about how he rolled his new toy. But this is friggin cool as hell nonetheless.

Now all we need is some rich guy to buy a surplus Russian Mig fighter jet and outfit it with remote control like this. That would kick ass!

[nathan @ Mar 18th 2008 8:03PM]

I thought all H3, or maybe it was just the drivers, were under remote control of the saudis and other terrorists to use as much gas as possible and get us to send troops into other lands to find them gas.

[opus67 @ Mar 18th 2008 8:09PM]

Hmmm. That is a 16 in wall and 2 feet of water.

[rip @ Mar 18th 2008 8:26PM]

In other words, what the H3 could do before the conversion.

[Beth @ Mar 18th 2008 8:21PM]

I love this for many reasons. It's a great counter surveillance measure. Put a dummy wearing your clothes in it and send it out at night when the cops are staking you out or your ex-lover is obsessively stalking you. B-bye.

There are many great uses for it. You don't necessarily have to be outside of the car using the remote to use it. Sit in the back with your friends and few cold ones and take a fun ride in the outback.

Or leave your car double parked in NYC and watch it from your restaurant seat. When the cop pulls up, roll it away. Or, as you're in Starbucks, wait until a good
parking space opens up and roll it in.

There are so many convenient uses for this, including delivering packages without ever leaving home.

Who could complain about such a fun yet practical project? Where is your sense of humor and imagination? Maybe the complainers should turn off the pre-mixed TV and
enjoy someone in real life doing something fun.

[{MHWW} DMan @ Mar 18th 2008 9:34PM]

That would be a fun toy for my freetime :D

[Ash @ Mar 18th 2008 11:20PM]

I want one for Christmas now...

[Numetheus @ Mar 19th 2008 1:01AM]

Because the mythbusters way is crude and roughly done with the steering wheel ripped out so a box can simply turn the wheel. This guys solution is a bit more elegant where it still looks like a car on the inside instead of just jerry rigging a car with slap on hardware.

[Ryan @ Mar 19th 2008 3:07AM]

I for one accept our remote controlled hummer overlords..