Jony Ive’s Ferrari Luce May Be the Closest We’ll Ever Get to an Apple Car
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Ferrari is releasing an all-electric vehicle called the Luce. We don’t know a whole lot about it yet, other than it’s going to be a fast, electric, and expensive four-seater. EVs are usually heavier than their ICE (internal combustion engine) counterparts given the weight of the batteries. However, since the Luce apparently has an analog G-force meter built prominently into the dash, we should probably expect it to be a properly athletic Ferrari.
We know about the new in-dash G-force telemetry because Ferrari released interior images of the Luce yesterday. The interior was designed in partnership with LoveFrom and Apple’s legendary former design chief, Jony Ive — the man largely responsible for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iOS we know today. As both Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design and Chief Design Officer, he helped establish the design trajectory for generations of Apple devices, and the company hasn’t strayed too far from Ive’s signature minimalism since his 2019 departure.
This feels like a near-perfect blending of peak performance and “quiet luxury” aesthetics. LoveFrom is run by one of the most recognized and influential product designers ever, rising to fame at Apple. Ferrari is, well, Ferrari. Not only was LoveFrom retained to develop the Luce’s interior design, but its user interface, too. If you love Apple products, you can’t help but wonder, is this what the Apple car would have looked like?
Tactile over Touch
Since the release of the iPhone, automakers have followed suit in making touchscreens ubiquitous in cars. However, Ive believes touchscreens are “the wrong technology to be the primary interface” in cars. Simply, touchscreens require too much attention and distract the driver. Ive went on to tell Autocar, “The reason we developed touch [for the iPhone] was that we were developing an idea to solve a problem. The big idea was to develop a general-purpose interface that could be a calculator, could be a typewriter, could be a camera, rather than having physical buttons.”
Now, the Luce gives us the first glimpse into Ive’s idea of the perfect automobile interior and user interface blending physical controls and touchscreens. Although the Luce will unquestionably be out of reach for 99.9 percent of us, we can’t help but wonder whether we’ll see the Luce’s influence trickle down across manufacturers. We’ll have to try to get our hands on one for testing — though we might need to check our investment portfolios first.
