GoKawiilis a senior editor who has obsessed over headlines and internet speeds since 2011. He previously worked as an advocate for the National Park System.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
It may be the NBA playoffs but right now Ferrari is getting dunked on more than anyone. Whether they own a Ferrari or just have a poster of a Testarossa on their wall, fans in the Ferrari-verse are frothy about the Luce, the company’s first all-electric vehicle. According to one highly rated Verge commenter: “looks like a Polestar had a one-night stand with a Prius.”
Whatever. The competition should steal this design.
The Luce looks weird because Ferrari isn’t asking to have its edges sanded off. Its most iconic models, like 1987’s F40, are defined by hard angles. That makes the contrast between Luce and legacy even sharper. But look beyond the Luce’s cover to find a compelling design story on the inside.
There are lots of arguments for and against the everything-is-a-touchscreen modern car. Ferrari’s new design, built with Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s design agency, LoveFrom, is more proof that there can be a happy middle ground — perhaps a Goldilocks zone of car interiors that successfully blends sensory experiences. I can picture Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy looking at this thing and once again uttering: “it’s biodigital jazz, man.”
I’m a huge fan of physical switches over touchscreens because when done right, they’re graceful, efficient, and fun as hell to use. Reducing every tactile input to the same kind of press on a giant touchscreen that dominates the interior of a vehicle feels both tacky and unwieldy. I recently got to see the gigantic 56-inch Mercedes EQS EV “Hyperscreen” and thought I was inside a clown version of the Las Vegas Sphere. There’s something alienating about the Hyperscreen and other offspring in Tesla’s design lineage, as if Grok went back in time to imagine “the perfect future car” and then made that slop real. A screen can be suitable, but a switch has soul.
The Luce is awash in soulful physicality. Just look at this stuff:
The Luce’s steering column. Ferrari Overhead launch control panel. Ferrari Sport mode? Yes, please. Ferrari More steering wheel switches. Ferrari
Every single physical switch on this thing is begging to be touched. It’s a tactile wonderland, with a mix of rotating knobs, buttons, and toggle switches. There are even variations within each type. And they’re all wrapped in the embrace of an unfussy interior that lets these little details shine.
... continue reading