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The Talking Tesla
// Yanko Design

Cars evolved in a way that the front of the car started taking on face-like qualities. The headlights were the eyes, and the radiator grill was the mouth. The shapes of these determined the expression of the car and allowed them to fit into various categories. Smiling automobiles would become family cars, while aggressive or serious-faced cars would go on to become sports-cars or luxury sedans. So when Tesla decided that their model S would no longer contain a discernible radiator grill, it felt a lot like the car lost its mouth.

In order to return anthropomorphic qualities to the car, designer Steel Drake redesigned the Model S. The new concept, called the Model SD, features a rather different looking front detail. Between the two headlights, around a tiny triangular (Alfa Romero-ish) radiator grill lies the car’s new mouth. Taking inspiration from grill designs and marrying it with illumination, the car’s front features an interactive inverted-mustache panel of lights that give the car its face-like quality again while also bringing something innovative to the table. The detail (we’ll call it the mouth) lights up on ignition, almost looking like an air-flow pattern. It even changes color, based on your driving mode and it’s difficult to say if it would serve as an indicator too, but I’d be rather impressed if it did… because that would literally mean the car’s ‘mouth’ could communicate!

Designer: Steel Drake

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