Ferrari CEO: You Car Doesn't Have Buttons Because They're Expensive
You, like many others, may be sick of tapping around on a screen to adjust basic controls in a new car. Unfortunately, there's a simple reason for that, says Ferrari's CEO. It's Occam's Razor in effect: buttons cost more than screens in this day and age, and it's far, far easier for an automaker to cut costs on buttons and keep prices down than it is to install buttons and deal with the negative feedback that inevitably (and justifiably) arises when an automaker raises prices.
Speaking to Autocar India, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna says it's simple: "The touch is something that is made for the supplier’s advantage." It's cheaper. Ferrari paid dearly for this in recent models, where its steering wheels featured capacitive touch "buttons" and fewer physical controls than older models. In a six-figure luxury supercar, that's just being cheap. Now, the brand is offering retrofits for owners who want their buttons back.
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Now, it's something Ferrari says it can use to "stand out" with beautiful, nice-to-touch switchgear that others may not offer. However, this phenomenon isn't limited to obscenely-priced luxury supercars for the one percent. This issue is present much further down in the market, too.
The Subaru Outback is a prime example. While launching the latest Subaru Outback, the brand, just like Ferrari, pivoted back to buttons after doing away with them for several years and consolidating key functions behind a vertically-arranged touchscreen. That old system was, frankly, not the greatest to use. The Outback's new stuff is much better, and buttons are a big part of that.
Subaru told us at the launch that the move back to buttons came directly from buyers, not unlike it did at Ferrari. In this case, Subaru's price increases for the Outback lineup translated to a better user experience that the brand was willing to bet on, hoping buyers would take to the new system more than the old one. Controls for key functions, like the climate suite and the car's cameras, are now buttons mounted below the screen and into the center console. They're easier to access, easier to remember, and even after a few hours behind the wheel, don't require your eyes to find. For Subaru, it was a decision motivated by practicality, demanded by buyers.
At Ferrari, it's more about having something unique to say with the brand's interiors: "We have no problem going around with electronic consumer products that look the same. But we don’t like to go around with cars that all look the same. We need to do something unique. We are used to [doing] something else," said Vigna.