If you're as sick of AI being ruthlessly and cynically crammed into everything as we are here at RideApart, then you might, like me, just be shaking your head sadly at its seeming inclusion in yet another place it doesn't belong. But I'm committing the cardinal sin of burying the lede here. You see, there's now a motorcycle manufacturer that's proudly proclaiming that AI is at the heart of its latest firmware update.
You may already be familiar with Ultraviolette, depending on where you live and whether you care about EV motorcycles. And I don't know about you, but I think that the F77 Mach 2 looks cool as heck, even though it isn't currently offered in my market (the US).
For those unfamiliar, Ultraviolette is a seemingly fast-growing EV motorcycle maker from India, where there's been a massive push on to get more EV-powered vehicles on the road over the past few years. It also recently obtained the appropriate certifications to allow it to start selling its bikes in Europe.
And at this point in the story, it's definitely worth noting here that, unlike some startups, Ultraviolette's bikes are both real and rideable, by all accounts. In a world of more Kickstarter scams than you or I have the time (or fingers) to count, that does count for something, for sure.
But now, the company has just introduced a new, free firmware update for its F77 Mach 2, which it's advertising as giving the bike AI enhancements. This firmware upgrade is, incidentally, being offered free for anyone who's bought an F77 Mach 2, no matter whether they bought it in the past or they're putting down money on a new one right this minute.
Did your eye just twitch, or is that just me? I hate feeling this way, incidentally. I enjoy tech; I enjoy video games; I enjoy cool new stuff, and scientific advances. I'm absolutely not the person who's going to tell you that bikes were so much better when they had carburetors instead of fuel injection (even though I do have two carbureted bikes of my own). And I certainly don't hate EV motorcycles; I spent over a year with a Zero SR/F and for the most part, I found it to be a lot of fun (with some practical problems regarding infrastructure in my area).
I Don't Want AI Anywhere Near My Motorcycles, Please and Thank You
While I'm definitely a person who appreciates the convenience of an over-the-air (OTA) update for electronic devices, to my mind, there are two caveats to that statement.
One: The OTA update should be reliable before it rolls out to customers; not some half-baked thing that someone rushed to roll out the door, and arrives half-broken and making your device noticeably worse to use than before.
Two: What would you even use AI or large language models (LLMs) for on any motorcycle, shiny new EV-type or otherwise? How does that even make sense?
Here's the thing: It doesn't. If you read Ultraviolette's description of its new Violette AI, it's just a name for its enhanced electronics suite, which apparently (says the company) pulls in a whole bunch of data the company has gathered from riders who've been riding its bikes so far.
This data, it says, is used to determine and dial in optimal settings for things like its dynamic stability control system, brake regen, anti-collision warning system, and so on. Violette AI also apparently offers a movement and fall alert, as well as a vehicle towing alert (presumably via the Ultraviolette mobile phone app, which is available for both Android and iOS). Crucially, it provides these alerts whether the bike is turned on or off. There's also a Lockdown mode, where you can shut things down remotely if you get a warning alert about your bike moving when it shouldn't be.
All those things sound pretty good, right? But at the same time, not like anything you (or I) have been told is described by the letters A and I smashed together. To be honest, a lot of it sounds like electronic rider aids that some other high-end moto manufacturers have already integrated into their bikes for a few years now; or, in the EV sphere, like features that Damon said it wanted to integrate but so far hasn't brought to market.
After learning what Violette AI purports to do, the features don't sound bad. However, it does sound like the company's using "AI" in the name just because it's everywhere right now. And in a time where folks inside and outside of motorcycle manufacturing are using janky AI to create nonexistent motorcycles, hallucinatory fever dream images that integrate real motorcycles, or both, it's the kind of thing that I wouldn't want to associate with my motorcycle brand, if I was in any kind of decision-making capacity at an OEM right now.
So don't panic just yet, but get ready to scream real loud if anyone decides the only thing some poor future motorbike is missing is ChatGPT or Gemini. I'll be right there with you. (And besides, if you really want AI on your motorcycle, most modern bikes already have smartphone connectivity. So guess what? Your dream is already within reach! Lucky you.)
