Tesla may have started the touchscreen craze that has reshaped the interiors of modern cockpits, but the Tesla-style approach to adding touchscreens to a car’s interior has been called “lazy” by Jony Ive, the former head of design at Apple.
Ive and his partner, Marc Newson, were hired by Ferrari to help design the techie components of the Ferrari Luce’s cabin. Getting the man behind the iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch is a big win for Ferrari, which is looking at how tech can enhance the overall driving experience. And it seems like Ive’s overall strategy is to move away from the massive screens found in most modern cars today, inspired by Tesla.
“Yeah, I think a large touchscreen practically, functionally, doesn’t work. That’s incontrovertible,” Ive told The Drive during a Ferrari press event. He called the concept of a massive touchscreen “easy and lazy,” especially when implemented within a car’s cabin. To break free of this trend, Ive envisioned multiple small screens that are integrated into the driving experience.
This is a lot different than Ive’s past work with Apple, where large touchscreens were all the rage (thanks to his own doing).
“I think the tough thing is if you innovate, there will be unintended consequences. So it’s one of the reasons I’m not with the old company, and it’s one of the reasons I’m doing what I’m doing now. I take it very, very seriously,” Ive said of his work with Ferrari.
What makes a good car touchscreen?
You can’t sit in a car these days without seeing a bunch of screens light up. What was once seen as futuristic and innovative can now feel a bit overbearing if it’s not done right. But what makes a car’s touchscreen good?
Mercedes’ luxury cabins blend modern comforts with innovation in a way that seems to work for most drivers. That’s because Mercedes realized in 2025 that drivers didn’t want a bunch of touchscreens all over the cabin: research showed that drivers wanted buttons back. A real shocker. The key to its successful touchscreens? Having a limit on the screens and giving drivers haptic controls that let them feel more connected with their vehicle.
“It is one of those things, you get ahead of yourself, and you do really cool things,” Ola Källenius, chairman and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group, said. “You test it, and it works beautifully. But sometimes you have to take two steps backwards to take one step forward.”
The Ferrari Luce is exploring just that. The center display is a 10.12-inch OLED touchscreen with toggle switches and a glass volume knob. There is a dial on the upper-right of the steering wheel’s face that controls the windshield wipers, complete with a tiny lens that magnifies the position of the settings. There are screens, yes, but they are integrated with physical buttons and placed so they are not the focal point of the cabin.
Meanwhile, some vehicles like the Ford F-150 have just slapped a massive touchscreen in the center of the dashboard. It’s one big, honking screen that can do it all. Every menu, functionality, and feature is in that thing, which can be seen as useful – or dangerous. Depends on who you ask. And if you ask Ive, one of the original innovators of large touchscreen devices like the iPad, he is not a fan. (Maybe Ford’s next EV pickup will take some cues.)
“I never would have used touch in a car [for the main controls],” Ive said. “It is something I would never have dreamed of doing because it requires you to look [away from the road]. So that’s just the wrong technology to be the primary interface.”
All of my cars are older and don’t have any touchscreens. I am jealous of my boyfriend’s Mustang GT’s backup camera. Wouldn’t that be nice? But I am not a fan of the massive touchscreen along the dashboard and behind the steering wheel. To me, I’d miss the feeling of cranking and clicking and pressing things. And I won’t even go into how often the screens freeze or stop working properly. Aren’t these things supposed to make things more convenient, not make the road trip more annoying?
We’re not going to escape touchscreens. Tesla has made sure of that. But I think we need a balance to make them more enjoyable. They can’t be overbearing. They can’t be lazily slapped onto the center console. They can’t force us to jump into a seemingly infinite number of menus to get stuff to work. They should be stylish, thoughtful, and helpful while still letting drivers feel connected to their vehicles. They should be a seamless part of the driving experience, not the focal point of it.
