Look back through automotive history and you’ll find dozens of beautiful cars, most styled by Italian firm Pininfarina, which was long Ferrari’s go-to design house.
In recent years, Pininfarina has scaled back its operations, and has worked with niche brands like Morgan, or rising challengers such as Vinfast, while related brand Automobili Pininfarina launched the Rimac Nevera-related Battista.
Now it has helped to open the Vittori Turbio 6.7-litre V12 hypercar, made by a US startup and styled by Pininfarina, at least in part.
While the reveal of the new model made no mention of how it came to be, Vittori had previously said artificial intelligence (AI) was used to create the Turbio – something which Pininfarina subsequently confirmed when asked by Carscoops.
“AI was instrumental in the early phases of design, allowing to quickly iterate through hundreds of potential directions,” a Pininfarina spokesperson told Carscoops.
“Pininfarina then took that foundation, refined the ideas, and transformed them into a fully realized, running show car. With nearly a century of experience, Pininfarina elevated the design turning vision into reality with timeless proportion and craftsmanship.”
Unfortunately the admission has cast a cloud over the now Mahindra-owned Pininfarina’s design, however it’s far from the first – and it won’t be the last – brand to use AI.
Nissan has admitted to using AI as a tool for car design, with the grille of the new Qashqai beginning as a generated piece before human designers finish it off.
Though he has described AI as creating “shit solutions”, Mercedes-Benz’s chief design officer Gorden Wagener has previously said he and his team have been using AI tools, he said “it doesn’t create good results,” and that its limitations place it largely only as a tool to create backgrounds.
The executive has also said AI could threaten to “make designers obsolete” within the next decade.
“That’s the biggest problem – sorting out the good stuff from the bad. But you get one per cent good stuff and we keep learning. It’s getting better every day.
“AI will drastically change the way we design. I think in 10 years maybe most of design will be done by AI and it will make designers obsolete.
“My successor will be a machine and will be much cheaper than my salary.”
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