296 Steering wheel (from purosangue)

Who has the new steering wheel in their 296? I have seen one 296 GTS with it. 2024 build. I will assume easier to use ?

 

Is there a new steering wheel? What is the difference?

I have the picture of mine (MY24) here. Car is still at dealer; delivery still need to be scheduled as they are on holiday.
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That's the new wheel from Puro.
Has a 'button-type' action rather than swipe (right side controls)...still haptic, but far more intuitive to use and feels more responsive than the old swipe action.

Seeing these on the new MY 296 is great news!

 

My 2024 does NOT have that steering wheel. Sounds like a mid year swap.

 

My 296 left the factory on May 6 and does NOT have that wheel.Arghhh. I spent a lot of time this morning screwing around while driving to get the swipe pad to work properly.

 

Maybe its not such a bad thing my GTS and GTB are taking so long

 

That looks promising. Hope it works well!

 

I took delivery of my GTB on July 19. It does not have the new wheel. I'm not even sure I would prefer it.

I think the haptic controls work great!! I have no idea what all the complaining and fuss is about. It did not take me long to master the swipes - it was almost instantaneous.

I was really concerned before taking delivery after reading about the complaints. I'm now totally dumbfounded. The controls work great!

 

You must be a young whipper snapper. Us old farts don’t like it apparently!


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My GTS from July 2024 has the new steering wheel and I previously had the 296 GTB. In my opinion, it's a big step forward. The software is also much better now. I'm very happy with Apple CarPlay and everything works fine. Before, it was a disaster.

 

Sounds like you avoided near death one haptic button at a time. Good on you for saving yourself.

I think we'll continue to see a rapid pace of improvement as the years go. Ferrari designers will keep testing the limit of form vs. function when it comes to this interiors. With electronics and displays now being embraced, they're just in their infancy in comparison to other makes.

It is a nice to see differences in model years though, unlike with previous models.

 

Wow, I received the final pic of my 296 GTS on May 15. My dealer told me at the end of May that it was being loaded and on its way here (to Los Angeles). With MODIS being down, I have no clue where it's at.

When did you get your final picture?

Is your steering wheel the CF one with LEDs as well?

 

What changed with the software and CarPlay?


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For me night and day between the SF90 and Purosangue, still not ideal but the Purosangue works so much better, overall such a terrible idea/design but if I had to chose no doubt the Purosangue.

 

Is the updated steering wheel available in the US or only in Europe?

 

I prefer the clean aesthetics of the previous wheel now that I have brushed up on my "fine motor skills" using it for the past year.

You can dial in some of the sensitives in the settings too.

 

The one saving grace for the wheel is that it does look good and the new one, less so. However, although I am somewhat used to it, it is painful with car play where you have to take your eyes off the road and look at what's currently selected and then deal with it being really slow to use too. Having said that, touch interfaces on screens in a car is a dumb idea. Aiming for an icon smaller than the end of my finger in the middle of the dash on a bumpy road in my truck as not much fun either. BMW's with iDrive and a fast interface are a lot better than most systems (imo).

 

This. I am 100% a tech person and happy to use touch screens but not on bumpy roads. Even the full size screen in my daily is difficult to use on bumpy roads unless I brace my hand on the cowl over the screen.

I get the feeling this is an "Enzo Ferrari" problem, ie the testers said "the car & engine are great" because their test scripts did not include make a call, play music or change a setting deep within the menu systems whilst driving.

Introducing technology for technologies sake is rife everywhere – sometimes for marketing, sometimes because designers design what they want and not evaluate what customers want. The key is to start with the customer and work backwards to the correct design.

I am working on a project where a 20 year old interface was replaced with the "next great thing" and 2 years down the line it has been evaluated as having caused an 8-12% loss in productivity. It is being replaced with a modern version of the old interface, ie all the bells and whistles that modern UIs can offer but with the visual clarity and usability of the 20 year old well honed design.

The steering wheel and controls are just that, a well honed design over many decades that should not be substantially updated unless demonstrably better for the customer.

 

Surely the manufacturers MUST test the designs.. there must be at least some thought that goes into usability. At the very least you would think there would be some feeback loop to design and marketing that points out flaws. In a car the ideal is to be able to control functions by feel. Whoever thought a BLANK touch panel where you have to guess where an icon is, was a good idea, needs locking up! Don't even get me started on having to activate the cruise control panel by touching the swipe control before you can use it. Mind you.. I do love the 296

 

I love every aspect [bar 1] of mine too, which is why the UX is so annoying.

I might be doing Ferrari a disservice but bumpy roads and haptic controls – somebody clearly dropped the ball as it is evident on large touch screens in other cars let alone a minuscule trackpad and touch points.

They designed the steering wheel. If is not cheap to do and costs a lot in compliance and safety testing, will they make a change six months before release at major expense? Perhaps BMW and Audi and other volume manufacturers would but Ferrari for a few thousand cars a year?

They know they have got it wrong, hence the near identical steering wheel on the Purosangue that attempts to solve the feedback from owners whilst minimising R&D costs and perhaps compliance and safety testing as you could say it is the same wheel with slight recess for touch points and a raised "track pad".

I doubt they have "consumer panels" due to the secrecy. So do they have a test pool of cars (in the final state) for employees to drive to/from work or on long journeys or when they do their atmospheric (hot, cold, snow, rain, humidity etc) testing – nope or is it too late at that point.

Putting a engine or gearbox or other major mechanical item in a mule car is what they are used to and comparatively "cheap" compared with putting an "advanced" steering wheel in a mule which has none of the supporting electronics. Now they have existing cars with said electronics hopefully the next substantive iteration of wheel will be better.

 

But how many taps on the "e-manettino" side does it take you to go from Hybrid mode to Qualifying? If I can activate it in less than four taps, it's a miracle. Meanwhile, the drive mode dial is idiot-proof (except the new hidden bumpy road mode).

 

Oh and the only way we know where the button for Qualifying is, without a first incorrect tap to make it light, is because there's a smudgy fingerprint on the smooth black plastic to show where the buttons are hiding.

 

Well. what I find to be particularily exciting is to guess on the fly, ideally at a crucial time, say when overtaking. In these instances I've found that it is between one (which is rare) and three attempts. It does look nice though and feels very flat and smooth which completely makes up for feeling of dread when I accidentally hit full electric.

It reminds me of playing a guitar with no strings whatsover and when you touch them they sometimes don't work.

 

Which will no doubt drive 2055 F-chatters crazy.