What a letdown.
After having spent (way too much) time in automotive interior and UI-design and leaving the field based on the realization that classic car design organisations across almost all manufacturers are mostly driven by "aesthetics" and gimmicky "tech"-quirks but do not seem to care about actual usability and utility, i had high hopes that Ive would be the one to come up with an interior that actually makes sense.
This might be harsh, but I'm afraid, this will have the same effect on the car industry as Liquid Glass will spill nonsensical decoration for effect's sake across software outside of Apple, taking years to clean up.
Starting with the Steering wheel - Indicators as buttons, really? Then the control modules on the wheel: Good luck figuring out how to use the ACC. Zero buttons for Volume, Prev/Next or even OK/Cancel to navigate anything - meaning you'll have to take your hands off the wheel for almost everything.
Plus, it's a very thin rim and for a performance car not the best choice IMHO.
Good thing though there's ginormous paddles for "torque control".
The instrument cluster is a giant housing for three display areas that are anything but modern, aka Retrobore and in some cases not very good or clear - eg. tire pressure or the three scales in the power dial per mode that are very similar and probably too technical for most users.
I hope there's going to be some customization.
For the head unit itself, while it's nice having the option to swivel the unit it seems overengineered for a secondary feature.
While I'm happy to see physical switches and a rotary dial, the choice for what is being used as switches seems not ideal since the length of the switches might make it hard to use. People won't feel a shape/form and press it, but rather have to put in some muscular effort to hit the switch from the top or bottom and at the right angle - even if you can rest your palm on the handle of the unit.
As for visual design within the UI it almost seems unfinished and not very polished, let alone "luxurious" - especially the climate control screen.
Overall a missed opportunity that carries on the clutter we see today coming out of car manufacturers and neglects core utility in the automotive context.
It's neither focused and clean like most Apple products have been designed nor very emotional or even close to being "Ferrari".
It's the same problem as with everything automotive interior today (and for way too long already):
Decisions driven by automotive-/industrial designers who are caring for sculptural appearances first.
I sincerely hope that at some point we can see this as a chapter from the past - at a point in time where the DRIVER/passengers and ACTUAL utility are paramount and developed with software (and it's established rules about usabililty and affordance) being an integral part.
To add some more snark: Maybe Ive should care less about being chauffered in a Bentley and spend some actual time behind the wheel.
Showing myself out now.