Are They On Track? Chrysler Thinks The Key To Drawing In Millennials Will Be Giving The Car a Soul

The future of the car may be more about giving it a soul than making it drive itself, Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s senior vice president-Product Design, tells attendees at the SAE Convergence conference here.

Founded in 1974, the confab is aimed at transforming vehicles and the consumer experience through electronics.

“My cars are like my children and my family. I hate to think of a car as a commodity. The cool thing is the car keeps reinventing itself and it keeps up with the times. What we do at Chrysler is try to make cars as soulful as humanly possible and now giving a car a soul."

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Sciros - 10/22/2014 3:24:10 PM

+1 Boost

Souls aren't real so hopefully they figure out an alternative soon.

A lot of people see cars as a commodity and I think there's a need to appeal to those folks as well as to those who build emotional attachments to their vehicles. But yeah they can definitely anthropomorphize vehicles a la 'Aa Megamisama!' or Transformers' Bumblebee in ads or something.

MDarringer - 10/22/2014 8:32:04 PM

+1 Boost

The Mustang has soul which it why it stayed in production so long with a live axle. The new Mustang drives better but it has lost some of the muscle car soul.

Soul is massive.

A Triumph TR6 has soul even if it is a wretched drive. TVRs have always had soul even if the drive was not best in class and the sales in vintage TVRs is lucrative.

quizz - 10/23/2014 6:05:21 PM

+2 Boost

Miata has soul, everybody pretty much knows that. Chrysler needs to study why the Miata works so well.