The title of this article has been changed to better suit Klim and In&Motion’s airbag payment methods.
Despite the diversity of the moto industry, the one thing that unities the industry is a unified concern for road safety.
Klim, a motorcycle gear and apparel company, struck gold when they partnered with In&Motion – a company that specializes in the engineering and industrialization of smart protection solutions – to create the Ai-1 airbag vest for the masses.
However, buyers highlighted an interesting feature of the vest that is as of yet unprecedented in the world of moto-safety.
Given that the vest is up for grabs at $400 a unit with additional payment(s) to In&Motion for upkeep of the ‘In&Box detection module’, there have been two payment methods made available to the customer.
According to a report from Vice, the first method is to buy the vest outright. You pay the one-time $400 fee to Klim (plus taxes and shipping), download the app affiliated with In&Motion, and pay an additional $400 to In&Motion for the sensor module and call it a day. The second involves purchasing the airbag vest and then submitting to an annual ($120) or monthly ($12) payment option to In&Motion for ease of mind.
While the subscription-style payments were originally created to lower the financial barrier for the client, buyers soon realized that a lack of regular payments resulted in the deactivation of their vest’s sensors, rendering it useless in the event of an accident. Klim has since stated on their website the warnings the user will receive prior to the vest’s deactivation.
“In&motion will reach out [via the connected app] with a 30-day warning prior to your payment method expiration. After expiration or missed/forgotten payment, In&motion gives you a 30-day grace period during which the airbag functions completely the same. You will receive notifications about the missed payment. After the 30-day grace period, the airbag will stop detecting crashes until payment is resumed. You will not be able to turn on your airbag vest into ride-ready status after the 30-day grace period, so you won’t unknowingly ride with a non-functioning vest unless you choose to ignore the LED indicators warning that it isn’t active.”
Buyers of the vest who subscribe to the monthly or annual payments do receive an additional perk. Should they decide to keep the vest, they will qualify for a new vest every 3 years, as long as subscriptions are paid with reasonable regularity.
In a world where machines are evolving almost faster than their environment, it’s a game changer to realize that the golden age of efficiency may also sport a monopoly on safety over a missed payment or software update.
This may be cheaper in the long run for 4-season riders, I can pause the subscription when the vest and bike are parked in the winter. If you pay the subscription does the air bag get repacked for free? This may be a choice of paying for updates/repacks in advance or after deployment.
Hello Andrew,
Fascinating question. I went over to the Klim website to ensure that my facts were straight before taking this question.
Sidenote: whoever was on their end to answer the questionnaire was a curmudgeon who could have done with a bit of extra caffeine…
Question #3. “If I suspend/pause my subscription and forget to reactivate it, will the vest still detect a crash and inflate?”
Answer #3: No, because in the first place, you won’t be able to turn it on into ride-ready status before your ride. It will not ‘trick’ you into thinking it’s active when it is not because the LED indicators will warn you that it’s not active. If you ignore the LED indicators warning you that the airbag isn’t active, you can’t expect it to work.
Conclusion: It may indeed be a cheaper option. Whether the vest gets repacked is yet to be seen, as I can’t find the answer to that anywhere online…but I DO know that after a 3-year period, you will qualify for a brand spanking new vest.
I hope this helps solve some of your queries, and I’ll let you know if I find anything else in my spare time.
Cheers,
Amanda
Thanks Amanda for posting this. Jim had brought this article to my attention and I even heard mention of this pop up on NPR (on Wait Wait, Don’t Tell me). This seemed to cause quite the stir and I still don’t understand why. The overall premise seems to be “If I stop paying my subscription, then the vest stops working?!” and this seems to be shocking. But why?
If I stop paying my electric bill and my lights stop working, can I be mad at the light bulbs? If I don’t pay my insurance bill and then can’t make a claim, do I blame the agent?
Seems silly to get all torqued up about this.
If one doesn’t like the subscription model, buy it outright. Klim isn’t forcing you to do the subscription.