by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com
It’s been about three years since one of the most appreciated touring motorcycles on the American market, Honda’s Gold Wing, got the blessing of Apple Carplay connectivity. During these three years, Android devices owners must have felt quite left out.
That will change as of this summer, as starting next month the Japanese bike maker plans to roll out Android Auto on its Gold Wing bikes sold globally, and promises more motorcycles will be gifted with it in the not so distant future.
“Honda announced that Android Auto will be integrated with the current-model Gold Wing,” Honda said in a statement Wednesday.
“Customers with Android smartphones will be able to enjoy application services seamlessly such as music, phone calls and messaging. The method to update software is planned to be available in the mid of June, 2020.”
It’s a big year for Android Auto on the motorcycle market, and the battle to make it available to customers is heating up. Earlier in March, Harley-Davidson too announced the bikes it makes for the 2021 model year (Trike, CVO, and Touring) would also begin using Android Auto.
The Honda Gold Wing is nearly half a century old. First shown in Germany in 1974, it managed to quickly become a hit, turning into the flagship model of the brand and enjoying a great deal of success especially on the North American market.
The Gold Wind range presently comprises two versions for the American market, the standard and the Tour. Prices for the standard Gold Wing start at $23,800.
For that, the bike comes with a 1,833cc six cylinder engine, ran through a six-speed manual transmission with overdrive or optionally a 7-speed automatic.
The Gold Wing offers a lot of modern technologies. For instance. the so-called HomeLink feature can be had, which allows owners to control some of the functions of the home devices from the bike, allowing for instance the opening of the garage doors by using a switch on the center console.
