Verizon’s ‘Hum’ Turns Any Car Into a Connected Car

Verizon’s ‘Hum’ Turns Any Car Into a Connected Car

Most modern cars come with a service like OnStar, ready to help out the second your car runs into engine trouble or you get into an accident. Most services these days are capable of sending your phone push notifications on the status of your vehicle before anything even goes wrong. But if it does, help is just a button away. It’s a useful service, and a key selling point for new vehicles. But you’re pretty much out of luck if you drive an older car or one from an automaker who for some reason hasn’t hopped on the connected car bandwagon. While the market of unconnected cars continues to shrink as universal adoption becomes eminent, for the moment it’s still a huge untapped market with approximately 150 million unconnected vehicles still on the road. Verizon recognized this market as a huge opportunity and in doing so decided to launch Hum, a service that taps your car’s on-board diagnostic port and transmits technical information through a Bluetooth-enabled speaker clipped to your visor. It works with most cars (electrics and diesels excluded) and any carrier. It also costs just 15 bucks a month. Sounds pretty sweet, right? The Hum service collects data on a range of information, including fuel economy, battery charge level, transmission coolant temperature, and engine error codes. It relays that info to the cloud where your iPhone or Android app can notify you if anything seems to be out of place. If your car has an error code, the app doesn’t just bring it to your attention. It will explain what it means, recommend repairs, and even provide a cost estimate. If something more complex happens, a hotline will connect...