On Saturday, high profile car manufacturer Ferrari débuted their latest competitive racer, the Ferrari 458 Italia GT, at a 12-hour Sebring endurance race. The car gained a lot of attention, not just because it was Ferrari’s latest entry in international competitive racing, but also because of the QR code emblazoned on the hood. The code also appears on the Risi Competizione team uniforms. When scanned, the code resolves to the team’s website.
The code may have been the high point of the race for Ferrari. Their new F458GT was forced to exit the race after only 90 minutes due to electric failure. Despite this, excitement for the code, as well as the car, was palpable at the event.
QR codes have a long history with vehicles. They were first developed by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota. They used the codes to keep track of inventory for the manufacturer. From there, a number of companies implemented the codes in the same fashion until they were picked up by advertisers during the advent of mobile technology. The codes have since been used as the cutting edge of the marketing industry.
Though disappointed with having to drop out of the race, team principal, Guseppe Risi, expressed his excitement in using the code and what it could mean for fan interaction.
Ferrari has yet to unveil plans to use the codes in other ventures. Currently, the website linked to the codes is not optimized for mobile viewing, which is likely to incite criticism.
