DETROIT — If you’re wondering what the car of the future looks like—wood panelling comeback? More Cybertruck polygon shapes?—the answers are probably knocking around the brain of Ralph Gilles. 

As chief design officer for Stellantis brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Maserati, it’s Gilles’ job to shape the design of their vehicles as the company electrifies. As screens replace buttons and knobs, Gilles is also reshaping Stellantis’ design teams from the inside, recruiting designers from diverse backgrounds who are as comfortable using virtual reality headsets as they are clay models. 

In a subdued economy, auto companies are trying to satisfy both tire-kicking value shoppers and the increasing pressure they face to act like tech companies, hosting Steve Jobs-style launch events and unveiling concept cars boasting new technologies. Stellantis’s talent recruiting website makes it clear: “This ain’t Silicon Valley.” 

“It’s a little bit the Wild West again,” Gilles said this fall in an interview on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. 

The Montreal-raised executive has become one of the most influential Canadians in the Detroit auto industry. After mailing his designs to Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca at age 14—and getting a response—he became a director in the company by age 30. He said the “cocktail” of “splendid automobiles” he saw as a kid in Montreal has expanded his ideas of what’s possible beyond what’s traditionally been available on the U.S. market.

“Montreal has always been a fashion-forward city—a fashion capital, a melting pot of culture,” he said. “As a kid, when I couldn’t afford to go [to the city’s annual Formula One race], I would just walk around and just be blown away by these fabulous devices and cars and self expressions. That imprinted on me at a very young age, the contrast between exotics, muscle cars or European cars.” 

Gilles spoke with The Logic about how software has changed vehicle design, his love of sci-fi and why minivans get a bad rap.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

Stellantis probably has the widest range of vehicles: Fiat versus Ram. How do you think about designing new technologies for those different markets, and balancing them with heritage designs? The F-150 Lightning crowd is so different from Cybertruck.

We have such unique brands—we don’t have to dilute the brands to address a market. We can address different parts of the world, different tastes, different aptitudes. Build a cult-like following. So we’re not so worried about some of the startups.

It’s working, it’s something we’ve really doubled down on when we separated Ram from Dodge and distilled Dodge to its core. With Jeep it’s the same thing. We’re overlaying off-roading technology, whether it’s trail maps, advanced-traction control or using the electric torque to to inch up a very difficult trail. 

But we will use certain brands like Chrysler, or Lancia in Europe, to have a lot more fun and stretch ourselves. 

Stellantis has done some interesting things with software, like displays alerting drivers to emergency vehicles. How have software-defined vehicles changed design?

Changing the complexion of my own team, first of all. My UX department has ballooned. And that’s global. We pulled all of our resources around the world and have a mega, mega UX team. We also have the Software X team, which is relatively new, so we can control our own destiny and write our own code. 

We do a lot of internal crowdsourcing. The emergency software idea came from a partially deaf employee of ours who was nervous about not hearing an ambulance. It’s inspired [us] to really challenge our employees to come up with consumer-facing ideas that technology can solve.

How are virtual reality and augmented reality changing your job, and the types of engineers you’re hiring?

That’s the right word, it definitely is changing. My young designers during COVID asked me, can they get these units so they can continue to work at home? They brought those technologies back with them. The schools have also aggressively gone after 3D sketching. You can get to a concept very quickly, and the data is transferable to our existing systems, so it sped up the process. We’re actually co-developing the tools with our different suppliers. It’s fun, it’s an affordable technology. I think it’s young. I see nothing but upside. 

You’re extremely active in internal groups around diversity and inclusion, diasporic communities. There’s been concern that companies are letting those issues fall by the wayside as they’re worried about the economy. Are they holding up the way that they were in 2021?

We’ve doubled down. We’ve actually funded these groups double what they used to be three years ago. 

It helps with retention. It helps with development. We have a new one we started a few years ago, the working parents network. It’s tough, having kids and trying to be a career-minded person. 

So we’re trying to use our own employees to help each other out. And, at the same time, create proximity—between the leadership and maybe a new hire—that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. One of the most powerful ones is a women’s network. It was a U.S. affair. Now Europe is keyed in, Latin America’s keyed in. We have these incredible networking events that have spilled over into our supply base. One of the jobs of being an executive at the company is that you sit in a group. 

What’s inspiring you right now?

I’ve always been inspired by sci-fi. The writers do a very, very good job of anticipating the future, they tend to interview science teachers and experts. The AI piece is upon us already. 

Architecture inspires me. The most inspiring thing is our cities. I’m actually going to Singapore for Christmas, then in Japan, seeing how societies tackle mobility. We’re looking at ride-sharing, all kinds of things to solve for mobility while still having our core business be relevant.

It’s all about crossovers right now, but you’ve talked about how much you like the [Ontario-made] Pacifica minivan—what are you seeing that we aren’t?

It frustrates me honestly. It has a wonderful, very stable, minivan loving community. I had 10 different minivans in my time.

After my kids were grown, I still was getting minivans. So it wasn’t just about the babies. I was using it as a pickup truck: putting plywood and gypsum in there, building materials, race-car parts, go-karts. I use it as a weatherproof carryall. 

When it really hit me is how often my friends would borrow my van. I was the most popular guy. They don’t want to buy a van, but they want to borrow mine? I still think it’s the unsung hero.