VIDEO: Lewis Hamilton controls F1 car via Blackberry Storm
Lewis Hamilton controls F1 car via Blackberry Storm - Click above to watch video
Vodaphone is a huge mobile communications company, and it's also the primary sponsor of the McLaren Mercedes F1 team. The video after the jump shows just what their millions of dollars in sponsorship money can buy: a viral video staring Lewis Hamilton. Vodaphone makes the Blackberry Storm mobile smart phone, and the video kicks off with some office nerds who have hacked the Storm to control an R/C F1 car. They use the phone's built-in accelerometer so that turning the phone like a steering wheel controls the car's direction. The accelerator and the brake, meanwhile, are controlled via buttons on the phone's touch screen.
After publishing a video of their office grand prix on the web, the team of programmers is invited to the garage of McLaren Mercedes where team engineers have adapted the system to control Lewis Hamilton's actual F1 car. Hilarity ensues when Hamilton himself takes the car out on the track, sans driver, and does a lap behind the wheel of the Blackberry Storm. It's an amusing viral video and halfway convincing if we weren't willing to swear on our mothers that McLaren Mercedes would never allow its multi-million dollar F1 car to be controlled via a phone, let alone outfit the car with enough servos to actually perform the functions of steering, braking and changing gears. Follow the jump to watch for yourself. Hat tip to everyone and their mothers.
[Source: YouTube]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
lester 3:00PM (3/11/2009)
Oh look! He'll steer better that way than in real life and won't crash into parked vehicles. How about that!?
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Blackstar 4:36PM (3/11/2009)
I can't wait until they make an update so you can control Lewis Hamilton with a Blackberry Storm.
Mobius_1 6:25PM (3/11/2009)
Maybe they'll end up selling a few.
freckles 3:04PM (3/11/2009)
what a way to spend the day at the office!
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Shawn 3:26PM (3/11/2009)
Vodaphone doesn't MAKE the Blackberry Storm, RIM does, they just sell it....
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Franz 3:21PM (3/11/2009)
That's cool to watch & all, but Lewis & McLaren need to forget about all this PR stuff, meetings with the Queen and all that nonsense for a second, and get the '09 car up to speed. If they're not sandbagging, then they're frightfully slow. It seems a handful to drive too because Lewis had an off last week, and he was in the gravel traps again today... all while Jenson Button topped the time sheets for the Mercedes powered Brawn car. I know it's not likely they're showing their full hand in testing, but as a McLaren fan I'm concerned.
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Jsams4131 3:45PM (3/11/2009)
i thought this video was great. McLaren always had a humorous side to them (see their video when the Singapore GP night race was coming up?, they put rally lights on the front of the car to let people know they were ready for the first night race. LMAO)
I'm sure they are not showing their full hand in testing, but the first race is coming up soon, we'll see how practice and qualifying go.
I think Hamilton going off track is better now..than when the season starts again....being able to explore the upper limits of the new car in the off season gives me the feeling that he really is pushing his car. But im sure they are not practice testing just to be at the top of the time sheets at the end of the day, perhaps focusing on more detailed issues with the car...ultimately, turning the fastest lap matters but I think they are more worried about any car failure than Lewis screwing up his driving.
I hope McLaren keeps the cool videos coming for their fans.
J-TRAY 3:24PM (3/11/2009)
They will regret this later when they find themselves in the middle of the grid at every race this year.
Go Tifosi...........
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slicecom 4:09PM (3/11/2009)
You do realize that Tifosi are the Ferrari fans, not the Ferrari team. You`re cheering for the fans of Ferrari.
That said, I don`t cheer for teams, I cheer for drivers. Go Hamilton!
I am Rich 3:24PM (3/11/2009)
I call fake. Not only because McLaren would not allow that, nor would even Hamilton be stupid enough to do that (imagine that phone call to McLaren explaining that they stuffed the F1 car using a phone as a remote control), but the purposely poor camerawork can hide a lot; like someone else moving the wheels when the car is in the air and you cannot see the front wheels, and there is a delay from the movement of the phone to the movement of the steering wheel (and the steering wheel does not even move to the maximum turn input on the second demonstration), and if this were real, don't you think they would show some in depth stuff on how the car was made to be operated remotely? And would McLaren really contact this dork via comments on his YouTube video posting?
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Shipey 3:31PM (3/11/2009)
Friggin wow... *shakes head*
axlewood 4:13PM (3/11/2009)
shut up kill yoy
axlewood 4:13PM (3/11/2009)
^^ let me try that again....
shut up kill joy
withaj 4:45PM (3/11/2009)
Yes.. You are Dick.
Justin Hollabaugh 5:52PM (3/11/2009)
In addition to all of the problems you pointed out, Bluetooth isn't supposed to have that sort of range. While you can build special antennas to extend the range quite far, they are highly directional and fairly large. There are some sort of shenanigans afoot to pull this off.
klitorisaurus 9:49PM (3/11/2009)
I figured the same thing when I saw it earlier on geekologie.com! I'm guessing Vodafone carries the Blackberry Storm and this is just another example of the all too trendy viral marketing campaigns. Seriously, viral was a cool concept last year, now it's just getting stupid.
revaholic 3:25PM (3/11/2009)
This is crazy cool...Looks like Lewis got the hang of it pretty quickly!
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fusen 3:28PM (3/11/2009)
this seems like a complete viral marketing attempt.
The way both the first "homemade" video and the final video are so similar.
it all just screams of viral/fake :P
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FThorn 3:28PM (3/11/2009)
I saw this at WDW. Their race cars had little cages hanging off of one side to fake the remote control. Drivers were in the cages. It was all for laughs, really, but neat.
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skydiveguy77 3:55PM (3/11/2009)
ummmmm i am guessing their blackberry storm doesnt freeze up every freaking time you switch it from horizontal to vertical like mine does?
*shaking head in shame as all the iPhone users in my office point and laugh at me and my crap blackberry storm*
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