diff --git a/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb b/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb
index bdc54968e1664..68f66fea219ff 100644
--- a/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb
+++ b/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb
@@ -50,11 +50,8 @@ def close
           def http
             @http ||= begin
               http = new_http_client
-              if server_url.scheme == 'https'
-                http.use_ssl = true
-                http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
-              end
-
+              set_ssl_options(new_http_client) if server_url.scheme == 'https'
+                
               # Defaulting open_timeout to nil to be consistent with Ruby 2.2 and earlier.
               http.open_timeout = open_timeout
               http.read_timeout = read_timeout if read_timeout
@@ -139,6 +136,11 @@ def new_http_client
             end
           end
 
+          def set_ssl_options(client)
+            client.use_ssl = true
+            client.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE  
+          end
+
           def proxy
             @proxy ||= begin
               proxy = ENV['http_proxy'] || ENV['HTTP_PROXY']
diff --git a/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/persistent.rb b/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/persistent.rb
index 10ea3fa2042bf..642210df72775 100644
--- a/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/persistent.rb
+++ b/rb/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/persistent.rb
@@ -49,6 +49,14 @@ def new_http_client
             Net::HTTP::Persistent.new name: 'webdriver', proxy: proxy
           end
 
+          def set_ssl_options(client)
+            # Net::HTTP::Persistent manages its own SSL config for older version
+            if client.respond_to? :use_ssl=
+              client.use_ssl = true
+              client.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE  
+            end
+          end
+
           def response_for(request)
             http.request server_url, request
           end