Car UI Design

The article "Can this car save Ford?" from Fortune magazine's site, describes Ford's ongoing efforts to reinvent itself; and survive.

Most interesting for me was this snippet from a design meeting:

The question is, Should Ford offer drivers buttons on the steering wheel or racing-style paddles behind the steering-wheel spokes? It is a small detail - each component costs about $25 - yet it produces spirited discussion.

Mulally wants to know how the gear changes will be signaled to the driver. Mark Fields, who runs Ford's car business in the Americas, worries about durability and warranty costs. More fundamentally, he questions whether drivers even want to shift gears themselves. "I'm concerned we're going in the wrong direction," he says. Jim Farley, newly recruited from Toyota (TM) to oversee global sales and marketing, is thinking about how the action will feel: "If the paddle shifter is well done, it could be a big advantage for us."

Having spent many meetings teasing out the details of software design, it's telling to see that car companies do exactly the same thing. Of course they do! Yet somehow I just never thought about it.

Ford has recently identified 300 different characteristics - from the chirps on the electronic key fob to the clunk of a closing door - that define the personality of its vehicles. "There is great value for us in creating a Ford DNA," Mulally says.

Again, wow! I always thought expensive cars had a heavy sound to them (because they are heavy), but I never thought about a Ford having a distinctive sound. Do they really build a door and go "works great, but doesn't sound like a Ford!"? And how do they change that?...prerecord a sound and play it through the car's sound system to augment the actual sound??!