Some things in life complement each other wonderfully, such as cheese and wine. Others, such as Ferrari and autonomous driving, were never supposed to be spoken together. This is a valuable lesson for artificial intelligence scientists to learn before approaching the Maranello-based carmaker with suggestions for making a Ferrari drive itself. This was recently discovered the hard way by a group of AI experts.
Ferrari welcomed a pair of AI researchers who tried to persuade the supercar maker’s management that autonomous driving is the way to go. Benedetto Vigna, the business’s CEO, was uninterested and instead chose to take them on a ride in a Ferrari on the Fiorano race circuit, which the company owns and uses for research and testing. And guess what? The debate had come to an end.
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“The AI guys had a ride with our test driver,” the CEO told reporters in Maranello earlier this week during a press conference, focused on the brand’s electrification strategy. “When they got out from a Ferrari they told me, ‘OK Benedetto, our presentation is useless.’”
This does not, however, imply that Ferrari will never deploy assistance systems in its vehicles. Maranello’s strategy is to maintain developing on increasingly advanced driver-assistance technology but never achieving Level 5 autonomous driving. The most advanced self-driving systems, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), will allow the driver to become a passenger and never assume complete control of the car. Level 5 vehicles will be devoid of steering wheels, as well as accelerator and brake pedals. Obviously, Vigna does not want to see it in a Ferrari automobile.
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“No client is going to spend money on a computer in the car so they can enjoy the ride,” Vigna said on Bloomberg Television. “The human at the core, the worth of the man, is fundamental.”
During a chat with Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year, Stellantis Chairman John Elkann also confirmed that Ferrari would never be among the companies to provide completely autonomous technology. All we have to say is a heartfelt thank you, fellas!
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