Sigh – Pininfarina Is Helping Develop A Hypercar With ‘AI-Assisted Design’

Now, call us cynical if you like, but every time a new startup hypercar manufacturer arrives on the scene making some outrageous performance claims, we can’t help but harbour a deep suspicion that it’ll ultimately come to nothing, no matter how appealing the package sounds.

We bring this up because there’s a new one in town, Vittori, and its first planned product, the Turbio, has us doubling down on the cynicism because it’l feature ‘AI-powered design’ – and yes, you did just hear the collective sigh of despair of everyone reading this that’s poured their heart and soul into a creative pursuit.

What makes this all the more surprising is that the Turbio has one of the biggest design names in the business attached to it – Pininfarina. Granted, we only know that the famed Italian design house turned maker of mega-power electric hypercars is collaborating with Vittori on the car’s development, and we don’t know to what extent it’s actually involved with the styling.

Still, we’re what the Pininfarina stylists of yesteryear, who worked to pen some of the most beautiful road cars of all time, would make of the company’s name being attached to something that the car design version of Skynet’s had a say in the styling of. Probably best not to think about it.

It’s not actually clear how much human input the design’s had, but regardless of how much of it has come from a skilled flesh-and-blood artist and how much has been farted out by a computer programme, the teaser images show a resulting design with more than a hint of Bugatti about it, especially at the front.

Aside from being styled by HAL 9000, what else do we know about the Turbio? Purportedly, it’ll use a hybrid system consisting of a 6.8-litre V12 (origin unknown) paired with an electrified front axle, making a total of around 1100bhp and helping the car accelerate to 60mph in under 2.5 seconds.

Elsewhere, we’re told there’ll be magnetic adaptive ride control, carbon ceramic brakes, active aero, and 3D-printed chassis and body components (also using an AI-powered process, which is at least a slightly less depressing use of the tech).

Even the company itself is a little mysterious. Its LinkedIn page suggests it’s based in the supercar centre of excellence that is Modena, Italy, but most of the people associated with it appear to be US-based, and the global unveil is set for 4 October in Miami. Who knows – maybe the whole thing’s been generated by ChatGPT.

We’ll get a better idea of whether or not our cynicism is misguided in just over a month, then, but for now, pre-sales for the 50 planned units of the Turbio are already open.