Anyone who’s been behind the wheel or a passenger in a truly quick electric car knows that the first time you experience a full, pedal-to-the-floor acceleration run, it’s a bit unsettling. Fast gas-powered cars are one thing, but feeling that instant gut-punch of torque is a totally different experience, one that, if you’re not prepared for it, could legitimately disorient you.
Hell, even if the electric car isn’t particularly powerful, that first second or two when you mash the pedal delivers a similar jolt of torque that’ll make anyone not used to EVs a bit queasy. The first EV I ever drove, a BMW i3, gave me that feeling, and it was rated at just 170 horsepower.
Ferrari is currently developing its first EV, the Luce, and it seems particularly concerned about its car making people feel uneasy during acceleration runs. I say that because the company’s CEO recently said in an interview that it worked with medical centers and NASA—the space agency—to make sure its electric car wouldn’t scramble people’s brains during high-speed accelerations.
Company CEO Benedetto Vigna sat down with Autocar India last week to speak about the upcoming Luce EV, Ferrari’s first electric car, which is expected to be a four-door hatchback or crossover. When asked by editor Hormazd Sorabjee about the ingredients that will make Ferrari’s EV stand out amongst the many electric supercars in the segment, Vigna began talking about which aspects of a car generate driving thrills.
The first, Vigna says, is longitudinal acceleration. Makes sense—though it’s pretty meaningless these days, car media has been measuring 0-60 times for decades now, as it gives people a good sense of how they’ll feel when they put their foot to the pedal. And as we know with EVs, those with big acceleration might disorient drivers or passengers. Ferrari doesn’t want that to happen. From Vigna:
Sometimes [the acceleration] is disturbing our brain. We did a lot of studies with different medical centers and NASA to understand what is the level of acceleration that is disturbing to people.
If you’re going to ask anyone about how acceleration forces affect the body and mind, NASA seems like a smart bet. The space agency deals with this kind of stuff all the time when it’s sending astronauts into space, keeping them in space, and bringing them back down to Earth. Astronauts are subjected to training in which spinning centrifuge pods are spun at high speeds to simulate the g-forces associated with the fast acceleration of spacecraft. Here’s a video of this happening:
Vigna stays on the concept of how the body reacts to feelings generated by the car when it comes to transversal acceleration (a.k.a., cornering).
For the transversal acceleration, there is one point that is very important, the weight. Because what happens is that when you are cornering, the eyes want to corner but the gyroscope in [your head], because of the weight of the car, feels that you are drifting. So this is the second important parameter.
Vigna goes on to explain that things like braking, gearshifts, and sound are the other most important contact points, but doesn’t dive any further into what Ferrari’s studies discovered concerning those medical centers or NASA (I’ve reached out to the agency to see if they can provide any insight).
Nonetheless, I’m curious to know whether this means the acceleration from Ferrari’s EV will be purposely limited or otherwise stunted so as not to disorient drivers or passengers. While this sort of unsettling feeling is definitely A Thing in the world of electric cars, I don’t think it’s substantial enough to warrant multiple studies and input from NASA. Tesla Plaid drivers, Lotus Evija drivers, and Rimac Nevera drivers seem to be able to withstand these acceleration figures just fine.
Of course, I’m just some guy at a computer, and Ferrari is, well, Ferrari. Surely it must be using this data for some important reason. My only real guess is that perhaps it’s designing drive modes to keep acceleration on the more relaxed end, with drivers having the ability to unlock full acceleration through different modes. Or, perhaps they want to make sure they’re not going to upset people’s brains through their virtual gear shift system.
Either way, I’m sure buyers of the Luce will be thrilled to know that at least some part of the car was influenced by NASA. Remember those “Handling by Lotus” badges used on cars throughout the ’80s and ’90s? Maybe Ferrari will offer an “Acceleration by NASA” badge as a (very expensive) option on the Luce. That’d be cool.
Top graphic images: Varryx/YouTube; DepositPhotos.com
Wait…Ferrari is going to rocket their new electric car with their wealthy owners into space and needs NASA tell them it’s safe for the driver’s brains? Didn’t Elon already do this with his red roadster?
I need to read this carefully again. Hehe
Publicity stunt. Drag cars have been much, much faster than this fro decades and nobody brain was damaged.
A friend of mine has two sons and they both have drag raced. When one of them later joined the air force, the g’s from an aircraft carrier launch were said to be similar, or less than the g’s from a dragster.
I understand they can suffer from partially detached retinas over time from the rapid parachute assisted deceleration though. Famously, Big Daddy Don Garlits retired because of this.
There are current EVs that already do this. The Plaid and Sapphire. No need to waste drag racers time with this.
Seems embarrassing that Ferrari doesn’t have a ton of data on the topic of cars that go too bookoo for their clientele.
It’s like an inverse ratio between how many units Ferrari sells and how insufferable they are…
Why not ask a dragster racing team ?
This is such a ridiculous PR/Marketing stunt. People have been driving cars that accelerate like the Luce will for a long while. Just ask the many many owners of Tesla plaids or Porsche Taycans or, for that matter, half the field at IMSA races or every single rallycross or f1 driver in the last 30 years. So annoying.
Exactly this. The report should have been framed with this lens.
Sooo… Ferrari sourced s Sapphire for some testing. “Find me a source to claim that is too much linear acceleration while speeding up even though it’s OK for braking!”
I don’t know what they are worried about. No one is going to buy the car anyway.
Ah yes. The two aspects of driving that generate thrills.
I’m just waiting to hear the first YouTube car spotter call it the “Ferrari Lucy”.
“I think her name was lucy but they all call her loose”
Ask any top fuel or funny car driver about acceleration when they stomp the loud pedal and deceleration when the chute deploys.
The chute slams them so hard into the belts that sometimes it causes detached retinas .
5 g’s on the hit and 4 on the chute deployment is standard from I understand.
All in less than 4 seconds.
Or they could just not hammer the throttle. Calibrate it intelligently and done. I think it speaks to the type of person they expect to buy these posermobiles that they feel the need to do this or maybe the NASA association is just what they feel is cool marketing wank.
Nonsense.
Ferrari have a team of guys on staff who regularly go 0-60 in as little as 1.6 seconds, and take corners hella fast.
I believe they call them “F1 Drivers”
How do you say your EV won’t be as fast as competitors without saying your EV won’t be as fast as competitors?
It’s just like tempur-pedic . Just Italian design nasa tech instead of swedish design nasa tech. Maybe they should get tempur-pedic to make them seats or something too. I’m not convinced the thing will be a quick as a yangwang. It will be some kind of 4 door thing they can sell to people that sort of have money but spend it all.
I have vehicles like that.
I hope they put in a Ferris Bueller Mode for the valets.
I’d add geofencing to hinder theft too.
If you’re going to ask anyone about how acceleration forces affect the body and mind, NASA seems like a smart bet.
Drivers of Ferraris are not highly trained, elite astronauts in peak physical shape though, they’re influences with a credit card.
So a better consult would have been the designers of carnival rides with the goal of *safe* operation by a drunk Carny.
you don’t need to repeat yourself, we all know Carnys are drunk.
My bad
drunk carnies are America’s backbone
I first read that as “drunk Camry”….
Still works