Ferrari Luce: A New Paradigm for Automotive Interfaces
Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson, co-founders of the design collective LoveFrom have set a new standard for integrating physical and digital touchpoints within Ferrari’s Luce—the Maranello marque’s first fully electric vehicle. It represents a philosophical shift in how drivers interact with a car’s interface. For Ferrari, partnering with LoveFrom marked an unusual but deliberate choice: bringing industrial design luminaries—best known for shaping iconic consumer technology products—into the world of automotive UX and UI.
LoveFrom gives new shape and purpose to Ferrari’s automotive user experiences, blending innovation with heritage.
Ferrari Luce: A New Design Paradigm for Automotive Interfaces
Ferrari’s Luce—the Maranello marque’s first fully electric vehicle—is not just another EV. It represents a philosophical shift in how drivers interact with a car’s interface, brought to life through the combined creative vision of Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson, co-founders of the design collective LoveFrom. For Ferrari, partnering with LoveFrom marked an unusual but deliberate choice: bringing industrial design luminaries—best known for shaping iconic consumer technology products—into the world of automotive UX and UI.
Ive, famed for his role leading Apple’s design team and shaping devices like the iPhone and iPad, and Newson, an internationally acclaimed industrial designer celebrated for boundary-defying work across furniture, product, and transportation design, together reimagined the Luce cockpit to address core challenges of driving—focus, usability, and emotional engagement—while staying true to Ferrari’s high-performance heritage and brand DNA.
Beyond Touchscreens: A Tactile First Philosophy
A defining insight of the Luce design ethos is that touchscreen-first interfaces—while appropriate for phones and tablets—are fundamentally misaligned with driving contexts. According to Ive, a touchscreen demands visual attention that can distract from the road, making it the “wrong technology” for a car's primary interface.
Instead, the Luce cockpit emphasizes physical controls—machined-aluminum toggles, tactile buttons, and rotary dials—that can be operated by feel alone, allowing drivers to instinctively adjust functions such as climate, drive modes, and seat settings without taking their eyes off the road. This tactile emphasis restores what many luxury automotive aficionados feel has been lost in recent trends toward screen dominance: immediate, intuitive physical engagement with the vehicle itself.
Physical + Digital: A Harmonious Integration
The Luce isn’t rejecting digital; rather, it’s redefining how digital and physical interfaces interact:
1. Analog-Inspired Digital Displays
The instrument binnacle uses layered OLED screens that integrate real physical elements, such as an analog-style needle layered over digital graphics. This creates visual depth and clarity reminiscent of traditional automotive gauges while delivering dynamic information in real time.
2. Adaptive Central Display
Rather than a static touchscreen dominating the dash, the central display swivels on a ball-and-socket joint and includes a palm rest. This allows for visual information and interaction when needed—such as navigation or media—but empowers drivers to revert to tactile switches for core functions.
3. Material Narrative
Materials like anodized aluminum, Corning Fusion5 glass, and recycled metal aren’t just aesthetic choices; they are functional storytelling devices. They communicate Ferrari’s brand values of precision engineering, craftsmanship, and emotional richness in a way digital UIs alone cannot. The tactile cold-to-warm feel of metal and the satisfying resistance of physical switches deeply engage the senses, reinforcing an emotional connection between driver and machine.
Tactile Emotion and Brand Expression
Ferrari has always been about emotive driving experiences—not just performance numbers but the feel of the road, the sound of the engine, and the joy of hands-on control. The Luce preserves this ethos even as it enters the EV era:
The three-spoke steering wheel, influenced by Ferrari’s classic designs yet made from modern materials, underscores Luce’s connection to its lineage.
The glass key fob with E-Ink display transforms a routine interaction (starting the car) into a delightful, sensory ritual that complements the interior’s material richness.
By treating displays as responsive companions—not dominant arbiters—the design invites drivers into a deeper state of immersion, where visual feedback and physical action are seamlessly aligned.
Context of Immersive Driving Experience
In an age when many EVs prioritize entertainment and infotainment, Luce takes a more disciplined approach, focusing the driver’s attention on the act of driving itself. Physical controls serve as anchors in the cockpit, enabling drivers to operate functions without cognitive overload. Digital displays provide context-aware information that supports the driving task without distracting from it. This blend supports what designers call flow—a mental state in which a user’s actions and awareness are harmoniously aligned, particularly vital in high-performance and safety-critical environments such as driving.
A Benchmark for Automotive UX/UI
What the Luce demonstrates is a new benchmark in automotive human–machine interface design—one that respects both human sensory priorities and brand heritage:
Physical–Digital Synergy: Interfaces aren’t merely screens; they are materials, gestures, and responses that coexist in ways that respect a driver’s focus and intuition.
Brand as Experience: Ferrari’s DNA isn’t expressed only through performance figures but also through how the car feels—cold metal, the reassuring click of a switch, the visual depth of layered displays.
Driver-Centric Interaction: Rather than forcing drivers into software menus, the Luce empowers them with dedicated touchpoints that clearly communicate purpose and function.
In doing so, Ive and Newson have set a new direction for how automotive user interfaces can be designed holistically—with emotional resonance, ergonomic intelligence, and a deeply considered interaction model. This philosophy has the potential to influence not just Ferrari’s future, but also how the wider industry thinks about the convergence of physical and digital in immersive driving environments.
Images: LoveFrom/Ferrari
