Having nothing that crumples should mean that the full force of any crash is applied to the passengers. And the design looks like it's a nightmare for any pedestrian hit by it.
My assumption is that they aimed to have the automation/AI to the point that it avoided collisions and pedestrians, and aimed to sidestep the regulations. I don't think that has a chance in hell of happening though.
Don't get me wrong, the child in my loves the design, it's awesome. However the adult in me knows it's stupid, ridiculously oversized and dangerous.
I'd guess they never sell this in the EU, because it would never pass, or if it did, it would get terrible scores.
What? Why?? I knew they had much wider tolerances for pollution which is playing a part in manufacturers heavily pushing them, but why the gell would they be exempt from any pedestrian or passenger safety requirement? (And yes, it's obvious modern American trucks are deadly to passengers, the question is how they how was that allowed)
Whatever the manufacturing challenges are would be worth addressing to essentially have no paint.
You can have your Tesla in any color as long as it's bare metal.