Modular Tesla Pod Concept Reveals One Possible Future for the Famed Brand

Folks, the conceptual design before you is known as the Tesla Pod, a concept rendering from the mind of Fabio Martins, a product and transportation designer from Lisbon, Portugal, with a love for just about anything that moves (this design also served as Martin’s Master’s Thesis). Now, I’ve run across the rest of the project, and in it is revealed exactly how the Pod is designed.

From the last paper on this design, I mentioned that the entire system is made up of more than one vehicle type. However, all the mentioned vehicles use the same standard skateboard chassis, one very similar to what REE currently has on the market.

Part two of the project focuses on just the pod design, and this will be the point of focus today.

The first Pod variation is known as the Commercial Module (CM). With this design, Martin aims to answer the call of autonomous cargo manipulation by creating a cargo pod that includes absolutely nothing inside except space. Speaking of that, the interior theoretically offers 4 cubic meters (141 cubic feet) of cargo space.

While all this normally creates a massive vehicle, by using a skateboard platform and adapting an AI to take over driving functions, the CM is able to keep size reduced to a minimum, all the while carrying as much cargo as human-operated vehicles.

One feature that stands out against other cargo designs we may have seen, are the loading and unloading doors. Since the Pod includes no cockpit, it features a uniform design; both front and back of the module look the same and offer the same cargo-loading possibility. This yields two hatches that lift at the front and rear of the Pod to allow for loading. Another set of lateral doors set up on a sliding mechanism also allows for loading from the sides.

The second Pod variation is known as the Public Module (PM), a vehicle meant exactly for what you think, transporting people. For this module, Martin has created a vehicle with a much higher roof than the CM so that passengers can easily fit inside.

Another difference here is the lack of those front and rear hatches. Because people will be taking a ride aboard the PM, Martin thought it would be a good idea, but also a safe one, to seal off the front and rear of the module with a full strip of glass that runs the full length of the roof. This also keeps passengers busy with a view of the world around them.

As for entry into the module, it’s done in a similar fashion to the CM, but this time, the sliding doors are much larger and reveal an interior that even offers passengers a place to sit. Remaining passengers will be able to stand.

Again, the same autonomous platform is used for the modules, and if you remember the old article we featured on this design, that platform can also become a sort of sedan, really helping bring the whole Tesla theme together.

Sure, you may be thinking that this is just a concept and a rendering. Absolutely correct. However, let’s not forget that every material object, especially vehicles, that surround us in our daily lives once started as nothing more scribbles on a piece of paper.