Whether we like it or not, modernity is coming for motorcycles. You can curse Gen Z’s addiction to all things cellular and deride anyone who needs an iPhone while riding as less than a motorcyclist, but connectivity is here to stay.

Personally, I’m riding the fence on this one. As you might have read in last issue’s product review, I quite liked my Chigee AIO-5 CarPlay system. Oh, I didn’t need all its bells and whistles, but I did find having a screen devoted to CarPlay and its key apps — Apple Maps, Phone and Music — even more useful on a motorcycle than in a car. I was, however, thankful that, unlike a few OEM systems available, there was no ability for voice commands. I want to talk to my motorcycle about as much as I do the tax man; I’ll stick to my push-button remote and the touchscreen for my Apple CarPlaying, thank you very much.

Kawasaki hopes I’m very much in the minority. That’s because Team Green has announced an all-new Voice Command system. According to the company, VC has, depending on the country it’s being used in, up to 18 commands it can recognize, everything from placing a phone call to inputting a destination into the navigation system. And, unlike some other motorcycle manufacturers who farmed out their infotainment coding, iMotorbike says this is a “proprietary voice command system,” integrated with Cerence voice recognition software. 

Combing through the “Rideology The App Motorcycle” press release, it’s obvious that Kawasaki sees Voice Command as a safety feature; the company, like so many automobile manufacturers, coming to the conclusion that, if its owners are going to insist on being connected 24/7, they need to make those interactions as safe as possible.

So far, so good, right?

Except that — and, you know I would not be writing a column about this unless there was a big, bad “but” attached — Voice Command will only be available in Canada as a subscription. That’s right: not only must you pay for those 18 or so voice controls, but you must keep on paying for them ad infinitum which, despite what Google Translate says, is Latin for as long as you own the bike. Kawasaki Canada will make the VC system free for the first year of ownership, but “to continue using voice command and navigation features after the expiration date,” you’ll need to subscribe.

Now, to some — certainly more than a few commentators on the internet — this is sacrilege, the crime of paying an ongoing fee for an electronic device somehow beyond the pale. On the other side of the coin are the ardent capitalists of the world who understand that, if you want to enjoy enhanced functionality, you need to, well, pay for it.

Both arguments are, in fact, wrong. To the naysayers, understand that you should indeed pay for any service rendered, even if the product is as ephemeral as computer coding and GPS signals. To the Milton Friedman’s of the world, understand that the flaw in your if-you-wanna-play-you-gotta-pay mantra is that you have, in fact, already paid for the service.

For as with all such subscription services, understand that the hardware — the hard costs, if you will — are already built into the bike. The screen, the software, the connectivity bits are built into the Versys 1100, Ninja 1100SX and Z900 — the first models that will feature the new Voice Command system — from the factory. When you fork over your subscription dollars, you are simply unlocking access to something your brand-new motorcycle already has. And, unless you really believe that Kawasaki priced these bikes without building in the costs for those components, you are, again, paying for something you already own. 

Indeed, all this connectivity has reversed the natural order of optioning motorcycles. What was once a bottom-
up price walk (as in, you started with bare-bones “base” model and added things to it) has turned into a top-down model in which all the hardware is already there, but if you buy the base model, you’re simply denied access to it. And if you’re think that there’s a bunch of money in this, you’re right. Automakers, far more advanced in this business than bike-builders, are hoping to make billions on monthly stipends. General Motors has claimed it could be a $25-billion a year business.

Or not.

BYD, the Chinese automaker that took Tesla’s Number 1 away last year, just announced that it is going to make the ultimate in automotive software subscriptions — self-driving — free of charge on all its cars. Considering that Tesla currently wants USD$8,000 up front for its Full Self Driving as well as a USD$99 a month subscription, that’s one hell of a giveaway. According to Steve Levine of The Electric, if Elon Musk tries this same tactic in China, it will be dead on arrival. Read between the lines and it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to understand that if some enterprising Chinese motorcycle manufacturer — and here, I’m thinking of CFMoto which is starting to make serious inroads here in North America — began offering their software upgrades for free in our fair land, it’s going to toss a serious monkey wrench into any subscription models for other, more established marques.  

I’m hoping to test Voice Command in the next little while. I suspect, because Kawasaki seldom gets such technology wrong, that it will be quite impressive technologically. It will have to be if they want people to pay extra for it.