Jony Ive would have done years of work on the design of the Apple Car interior before the project was finally abandoned. While we’ll almost certainly never see those designs, a new electric Ferrari may provide a good clue as to the aesthetic of the interior.
The cockpit of the upcoming Ferrari Luce was designed by Ives’ consultancy Lovefrom, and it likely echoes a number of the elements we could have expected to see in an Apple car …
A couple of tech sites got a walk-through of the design from Apple’s former design chief, with Engadget’s Tim Stevens pointing to similarities in design language.
If you’re familiar with the designs that Apple produced under Ive’s tenure, particularly in the era beginning with the iPhone 4, you’ll feel right at home here. The overall aesthetic is one dominated by squircles and circles, all with absolute, minute perfection and symmetry […] There are 40-odd pieces of Corning Gorilla Glass scattered throughout the cockpit, everything from the shifter surround to the slightly convex lenses in the gauge cluster. What isn’t glass is aluminum, much of it anodized in your choice of three colors: gray, dark gray and rose gold.
He describes one playful element I love.
The key, for example, has a yellow panel with an E Ink background. Push the key into the magnetized receiver in the center console, and the yellow on the key dims, moving across to glow through the top of the glass shifter. It’s meant to symbolize a sort of transference of life.
Wired’s Jeremy White pointed to a perhaps indiscreet remark during Ive’s introduction.
“Part of my grumpy belligerence now is I’m done working with assholes,” Ive said in his introduction. The line drew a laugh from the audience around him.
Engadget has some great photos – take a look and let us know what you think. You can also watch Ferrari’s teaser video below, but this doesn’t show the interior.
Images: Ferrari