A vehicle including a front wall to form a cabin space to accommodate passengers, communication seats for the passengers seated thereon to talk face-to-face, and front and rear wheels. Front ends of upper and lower portions of the front wall are positioned forward of a rear end of an intermediate portion of the front wall. The front wall includes a front face-up surface, of which a front end is not forward of the front end of the lower portion of the front wall, and is not rearward of front ends of the front wheels, and of which a rear end is not forward of the front end of the upper portion of the front wall, and is not rearward of the rear end of the intermediate portion of the front wall. A front end of an upper portion of the cabin space is positioned forward of a front end of the intermediate portion of the cabin space.

A method for transporting a person or a parcel from a first location to a second location involves mounting a pod having a rechargeable battery and a compartment to a first vehicle, moving the first vehicle with the pod mounted to a loading position at or near the first location, loading a person or a parcel into the pod, moving the first transporter vehicle from the loading position to a first exchange point, exchanging the passenger pod from the first transporter vehicle to a second transporter vehicle at the first exchange point by de-mounting the pod from the first transporter vehicle and mounting the pod to the second transporter vehicle by a compatible physical interface between the pod and the second transporter vehicle, and transporting the second transporter vehicle with the pod to the second location.

A vehicle seat with a seat bottom and backrest is configured for movement between a forward-facing position and an inwardly-rotated position in a reconfigurable vehicle passenger cabin. The movement includes rotation about a vertical axis located along an inboard side of the seat and a rear side of the seat bottom. The vertical axis can be located within an inboard quarter of the seat, rearward of an occupant seating surface of the seat bottom, forward or rearward of a rear side of a bottom end of the backrest, and various combinations of these locations. In addition to providing a seat occupant with additional freedom of movement within the passenger cabin, the inwardly-rotated position of the seat can also provide a safer condition for the seat occupant with respect to structural portions of the vehicle body.

A method for transporting a person or a parcel from a first location to a second location involves mounting a pod having a rechargeable battery and a compartment to a first vehicle, moving the first vehicle with the pod mounted to a loading position at or near the first location, loading a person or a parcel into the pod, moving the first transporter vehicle from the loading position to a first exchange point, exchanging the passenger pod from the first transporter vehicle to a second transporter vehicle at the first exchange point by de-mounting the pod from the first transporter vehicle and mounting the pod to the second transporter vehicle by a compatible physical interface between the pod and the second transporter vehicle, and transporting the second transporter vehicle with the pod to the second location.

The subject matter of this specification generally relates to modular vehicles including separable pod and base units. In some implementations, a computing system installed in a vehicle base identifies a vehicle pod that is detachably connected to a chassis on the vehicle base. In response to identifying that the vehicle pod is detachably connected to the chassis on the vehicle base, a communications link can be established between the computing system installed in the vehicle base and a computing system installed in the vehicle pod. Based on information obtained through the communications link, the computing system installed in the vehicle base can determine a particular configuration of the vehicle pod that is detachably connected to the chassis. The computing system can then verify that the vehicle base can safely transport the vehicle pod while the vehicle pod is detachably connected.

Sports car comprising a cockpit equipped with a windscreen that delimits the cockpit, the windscreen being supported by a peripheral frame made of high-resistance material comprising an upper crossbeam at the top, a lower crossbeam at the bottom and a pair of side uprights connecting said upper and lower crossbeams, the windscreen comprising a front central upright arranged between said front side uprights to connect said upper and lower crossbeams.

A vehicle including a base frame having three or more wheels; a steering system for steering one or more of the wheels; a propulsion system for driving at least one of the wheels; a front pivot member and a back pivot member longitudinally spaced apart from one another on the base frame; a cabin having a front pivot point and a back pivot point, the cabin being pivotally mounted to the base frame between the front pivot member and the back pivot member, the front and back pivot points defining a longitudinal rotational axis of the cabin that is above a center of gravity of the cabin, the cabin being rotatable around the longitudinal rotational axis in one of a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction; and a seat assembly in the cabin for sitting one or more users, the seat assembly being located below the rotational axis of the cabin.

An exchange station has openings for drones, a passenger check-in/check-out bay for processing passengers, a drone connect/release bay, having apparatus adapted to manage passenger pods mounted on smart chassis, and a computerized control system in wireless communication with control circuitry in the drones and smart chassis, guiding smart chassis with mounted passenger pods and drones, to make the exchange of pods from the smart chassis to drones. A passenger entering the passenger check-in bay is loaded into a pod mounted on a smart chassis, the pod with passenger is transported to the drone-connect/release bay, and the pod is there joined to a bare drone and disconnected from the smart chassis, the drone leaving with the passenger pod to a destination, and the smart chassis traveling away from the drone connect-release bay.

A vehicle load-bearing structure includes a cell made of composite materials and composed of a plurality of components joined to each other by at least one joining system to form a single structure; the cell is made up of a number n of components between 3 and 8, that is 3<n<8.

A vehicle having a front axle with a pair of front wheels having a track width adjustable between a wide track and a narrow track; a rear axle with at least one rear wheel; steering means configured to control the turn of the rear wheel when the front wheels are set to the narrow track; track width control means configured to change the track width of the front wheels and to change the wheel base between the front axle and the rear axle such that for the wide track of the front wheels the wheel base is longer than for the narrow track of the front wheels; a locking mechanism configured to lock the track width; wherein each of the front wheels is connected to a dedicated front wheel motor for driving that front wheel and to a dedicated front wheel brake for breaking that front wheel.