To understate things, Ferrari is known for making incredibly looking and performing supercars. What it also has is a spotty history with infotainment. While a Ferrari is supposed to be the best of the best, it's understandable that designing software and switches are going to be last on the list of developments for the most exciting to drive cars on the planet. However, the new Ferrari Luce is here, it's an EV, and it needs to be the complete package to convince Ferrari customers that a Ferrari EV is worth buying. It needs to be as beautifully designed on the inside as it is on the outside. While Ferrari has released photos of the interior, the exterior is still under ugly camouflage.Carbuzz/Valnet To make sure the Ferrai Luce is as engaging to interact with inside as it is to drive, the Italian automaker brought in one of the most influential design leaders in modern history. Sir Jony Ive is best known as Apple's chief designer at the peak of its hardware and software design and influence, which is still resonating through every computer and mobile device today. He was behind every one of Apple's iconic products and their software since 1997. Whatever device you're reading this on has Ive's influence embedded in it. A Design Masterpiece By A Design Master Ferrari Love or hate Apple, its design aesthetic, the way people interact with technology, and its cultural impact is seismic in the technology we interact with every day. And cars are something the majority of us interact with every day. And the Ferrari Luce's overall form is designed for customers to use every day. Ferrari bringing in Ive as a master of form and function and how people interact with things every day for the most divisive vehicle in its history, so far, looks like a stroke of genius from Ferrari.Taking a second glance at the Ferrari Luce's interior, and you can see Jony Ive's sensibility is stamped everywhere. And it's not just in the Apple Cupertino style clock and the clear, unfussy, legible fonts. Or even the curves and natural shapes in the dashboard, screens, and steering wheel. It's deep in the style, the tactility and ergonomics, from the air vents to the glass shift knob, to the way the dials are designed and respond to their inputs. And, of course, the materials.While I've's design collective, LoveFrom, is behind the design, it's clear he was given full freedom from Ferrari here. The gauge cluster, for example, is made up of three recessed OLED gauges with physical needles that are inset in aluminum bezels, then set inside the rest of the display. Getting more granular, the graphics are simple, minimal, and most importantly, legible as they smoothly shift around. Move back to the steering wheel, and it's made from a single piece of aluminum. Thoughtful Flare And Tactility Ferrari One of the most whimsical pieces of design in the Ferrari Luce's interior still manages to be pulled off with style. There's a little magnifying glass built into the end of the windscreen wiper lever/dial to increase the size of the number font behind it. If seeing that doesn't make you smile, then your soul is bereft of the ability to experience simple joy. Then there are the lever switches as a tactile motif, and some of them extend out of the glass to blend the physical and digital together. Why Ive Is The Perfect Fit For A Car When Apple was at its peak and changing the way the world communicated, its core brilliance was taking an idea that was sort of out there in the wild, and bringing it to life while refining and perfecting his craft. The Apple iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, or even tablet computer, but with Ive heading design, the iPod was a tactile marvel and the iPhone, well, you probably have a smartphone that's either an iPhone or an iPhone in spirit. Multitouch capability, that was also Apple.But what gets forgotten as Mac products and tech products in general become smooth featureless pieces of glass on metal is Ive's love of color and tactility. It's possible Ive forgot that for a while there, as Apple's computer hardware has increasingly become soulless and more and more minimalist. A far cry from colorful iMacs, tactile iPods, and creative uses of plastic as well as sleek metal and glass designs.What the car world sorely needs right now is that kind of spirit bringing the car interior back to life. Tesla looked like it might in the early days, but nothing is more sterile than a Tesla interior now, although other automakers have tried. What we mainly see is a black plastic dashboard with a bezel-less rectangular screen soaking up more and more of the physical controls and indentikit digital gauges across single-brand models or even groups of brands owned by a parent brand – think Volkswagen with Audi and Bentley. Eschewing Minimalism Ferrari Luce What we see in the Ferrari Luce is not the current and now boring trend of minimalism. We see deliberate bezels around the touchscreen, we see gentle texture, fun tactility, and bold layers. If we look at the built-in stopwatch, there are two beautiful looking red and yellow colored buttons to start and stop it. On top of that, there are physical timing hands over the dynamic timing display to, again, blend digital and physical together. From the photos and videos, it's artfully done.Ferrari Luce Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Ferrari Luce is that it does not embrace the current auto industry's penchant for making EVs line up with the tech industry's current idea of good design, which is, essentially, everything looking the same. It's amazing, in fact, that I've used the word fun to describe part of a Ferrari that isn't its performance. Time To Sober Up FerrariI have been a fan of Jony Ive's work since I first saw a Bondai Blue iMac back when computers were still bland beige boxes with a bunch of unwieldy wires coming out of the back to connect with a bland beige box around a screen. Ive has, several times over, taken something that wasn't interesting and made it great and not just logical, but satisfying to interact with. The iPod, the iPhone, AirPods, and so on, are milestones in all design, not just computer design. But, while I would love to call the Ferrari Luce's interior a triumph of form, function and artful design that will push the entire industry into a new era of thoughtful, creative, and satisfying design, I can't.Unfortunately, Ive's work for Ferrari won't raise the bar for the affordable, or even premium segment, as they still operate on hard price points, thin margins, rising costs of components, and corporate pressure to cut costs while maintaining margins. There's little doubt that all the current big automakers have designers of high caliber, or could bring in a wildcard from another area that could do brilliant things if they had the financial freedom. But, we're now in a corporate era where even basic tactile switches and dials are about to become luxury items in a car.Sources: Ferrari.