I’ve been crying out for a revolutionary car interior, I’m just shocked it came from Ferrari
Apple’s iconic designer has created a new car interior, but Jordan Katsianis wonders if Ferrari was the right brand to do it with
It’s such a cliche to hear that car manufacturers want to be technology companies; that, through touchscreens, the cars will be more like a smartphone, rather than a mechanical device; and that this is the best solution for the future of motoring.
For Ferrari’s first all-electric model, it hired Sir Jony Ive, the man behind the most iconic smartphone – the iPhone – and guess what? It has buttons. The Ferrari Luce’s interior isn’t retro as such, instead it references historic models. But the execution is pure Apple-like sophistication, and this has caused quite a ruckus.
The shapes are simple, almost cartoonish. But there are two good reasons why I don’t think this will be a problem. First, looking at pictures, it’s easy to think the materials look basic, but in the flesh what’s glossy and black is iPhone-like glass, and what looks like regular metal is anodised. Like many Apple products, its simplicity doesn’t come across as mean, but with reduction of anything superfluous. There’s no ornamentation here.
The second is the user interface (UI). This will be absolutely critical to how the driver interacts with this electric Ferrari, but if it has been sorted by Ive and his team, we’ll be in good hands. Ironically, this hasn’t come from purely touchscreen interfaces either, but a combination of high-resolution displays and tactile, physical controls that reference classic mechanical switchgear.
Pushback from my colleagues, and the outside world, has surprised me. But these critics do make a point. I’ve been waiting for car manufacturers to fully embrace the idea of using high-end product design as the aesthetic standard for cabin design, but is a Ferrari quite the right canvas for such a project? This all-electric model will cost the dark side of £500,000, but will a cabin inspired by a £1,200 iPhone be good enough for it? We’ll have to see – both when sitting inside for ourselves, and in context of the car‘s exterior design.
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