Don’t expect a self-driving car from Ferrari anytime soon—if ever.
The Italian marque seems completely disinterested in autonomous driving technology, if recent comments by CEO Benedetto Vigna are anything to go by. In fact, it sounds like the brand has barely given the idea any thought at all.
The executive recently spoke at the Financial Times’s Future of the Car Summit when he addressed the possibility of building an autonomous vehicle, according to Insider. While Vigna discussed the different types of software that go into today’s vehicles, it became abundantly clear how he feels about the technology.
“In a cabin, there are four kinds of software. There is performance software, there is comfort software, there is infotainment software, and there is autonomous,” he said. “The last one, we don’t care.”
Vigna’s comments shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. He has been saying the same thing since taking over as the Prancing Horse’s chief executive back in 2021. Last year, while outlining the brand’s slow-and-steady electrification strategy, he said, “No customer is going to spend money for the computer in the car to enjoy the drive,” according to Road & Track.
Vigna’s and Ferrari’s lack of interest in autonomous driving technology are what most enthusiasts will want to hear, though. Sure, the Prancing Horse has built some of the most beautiful and powerful cars of the last century, but what really separates its vehicles from the rest of the premium pack is how exhilarating they are to drive. Automakers such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and just about everyone else can spend their time and money on the race to develop a car that can drive itself. Ferrari, meanwhile, will continue to build the kind of vehicles people love to get behind the wheel of.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there won’t one day, far in the future, be a Ferrari that can take over at least some of the driving duties. There was once a time the brand said it would never build an SUV, after all—and look what happened.
