I'm guessing you're like me, a Baby Boomer. When I ride, it's an escape - so I don't want to answer the phone, read text, etc. However, I'm speculating they didn't make this for us...they're trying to draw the next generation of riders - millennials, who grew up with technology and expect it to be incorporated in their products. Having a bike without a manual tranny might seem foreign to us, but how many millennials learned to drive a stick shift? I imagine when the first cars were introduced, the horse and buggy riders said the same thing...lol.
I'm a baby boomer, but at the end of the generation, 1963. I ride to escape also, yet I want all the latest and greatest technology. I work repairing machine automation, PLC's, robots and so on, so I like tech. I have my phone paired on my bike. I only answer it if it a call I want, like from a riding buddy or such. What I really like it for is when my wife and I are traveling on our bikes and we start thinking about stoping for the night. I find a hotel in our chain we like on the GPS, then it will call them for me. I find out if they have a room, have them hold it and then the GPS routes us to it.
All my children can drive a stick, they learned in a Manual pick up, all three girls. They always begging to drive my manual trans Stingray.
I can not see me ever owning a auto bike or sports car. With my car, I know its slower in the quarter mile with the stick, but its much more fun to drive on a twisty mountain road.
I love what the wing has to offer. Just wish it was on a Road Glide