Motorcycle riders have to accept fewer creature comforts compared to what’s offered in cars, but the gap is closing. While air conditioning’s still an impossibility, American motorcycle manufacturers have finally brought infotainment systems to two wheels.
The 2017 models of Indian Mototcycle’s Chieftain and Roadmaster come standard with Ride Command, an infotainment system that integrates navigation, premium audio and radio, Bluetooth connectivity, and vehicle data.
Indian’s 7-inch, two-finger capacitive 800×480 touchscreen is the biggest on the market today, besting Harley Davidson’s 6.5-inch display, which only supports single-touch input. Naturally, the touchscreen is glove compatible and supports pinching gestures to zoom in and out on the map. Riders can also interact with the system through handlebar-mounted controls when situations don’t allow for taking a hand off the bars.
Ride Command has several media connectivity options, both wired and wireless. USB flash drive support means that riders can just load their song files onto portable storage and play them through the 100-watt premium audio system output on the Chieftain, or the 200-watt system on the Roadmaster. Sound can even come over- the air with built-in AM/FM/weather band tuners.
Riders with audio systems in their helmets, such as those from Sena Technologies, can pipe that sound in wirelessly over Bluetooth, both from Ride Command or your smartphone. “It can easily pair with compatible phones and headsets,” an Indian Motorcycle representative confirmed with Digital Trends. “We sell and support Sena through Indian.”
Besides the features that can make the ride more interesting are features that give the rider safety and maintenance information about the motorcycle. Ride Command can display tire pressure, fuel range, fuel economy, miles left until next oil change, altitude, and heading.
Although a 7-inch infotainment system seems easily integrated into big, full-featured bikes like the Chieftain and Roadmaster, Indian’s most interesting motorcycle in our opinion is the new Scout. Unfortunately, Indian declined to comment as to when, or if, Ride Command will ever expand through the product line.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.
Missing out on the self-driving future is a tough pill to swallow, especially as a car enthusiast. But that is what Tesla handed us on Wednesday, without a hint of mercy.
During its October 21, 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk told investors the Cybercab is meant mainly as a ride service. Further, nearly all of them will be owned and managed by Tesla.