Zeleros SELF

About the project

A wagon that drives itself.

SELF rethinks the freight wagon as an autonomous, self-propelled unit. Instead of a single locomotive hauling a fixed rake, each platform carries one container and moves under its own power — sensing the track, coupling and decoupling on demand, and reconfiguring the consist on the fly. It is built to live across the same yards, ports and intermodal terminals that move the world's containers today.

IDMR's role was the industrial design of the vehicle body: the surface language of the chassis and end-cabs, the LIDAR and lighting signatures, and the way the standard container sits on the deck. After defining the full-scale exterior, the studio also produced the small-scale running prototype body used on the test track.

It sits alongside IDMR's other Zeleros work — see also the hyperloop cabin.

On the line

Freight, in motion.

Zeleros SELF autonomous container shuttles running along an elevated coastal track — **On track** A string of independent units running an elevated corridor — no locomotive, no fixed rake.

Gantry crane loading a container onto a Zeleros SELF unit — **Loading** A ship-to-shore crane setting a box straight onto the deck.

Zeleros SELF unit with operator alongside in a container yard — **In the yard** Scale alongside an operator and a reach-stacker handoff.

A fleet, not a train

One platform, many bodies.

Three Zeleros SELF units side by side carrying different containers — **Family** The same chassis under 20- and 40-foot boxes — units combine into any consist the network needs.

Zeleros SELF carrying a 40-foot container, studio render — **40-foot** Deck, end-cab and the underbody light line reading clean.

Zeleros SELF carrying a 20-foot container, studio render — **20-foot** The shorter box leaves the chassis architecture on show.

Zeleros SELF rear three-quarter studio render — **Rear three-quarter** End-cab volume, LIDAR pods and the wheel treatment.

Zeleros SELF full side elevation studio render — **Side** Full elevation — the load deck height and bogie line.

Zeleros SELF head-on studio render — **Head-on** The end-cab face, brand bar and lighting signature.

Zeleros SELF empty deck studio render — **Deck, empty** Twist-locks and structure with no container fitted.

From design to hardware

A running prototype.

Designing the full-scale exterior was only half of it. IDMR went on to build the small-scale prototype body — the running shell that Zeleros put on its test track, carrying a scaled container over instrumented rail.

Seeing the surface language survive the jump from render to physical hardware, on a moving rig, is the part that matters most.

Small-scale Zeleros SELF prototype body carrying a container on the test track — **Scaled body** The prototype shell on rail, container fitted.

Zeleros SELF prototype running on the test track — **On the rig** Moving under test inside the Zeleros track tent.

Zeleros SELF instrumented test track — **Test track** The instrumented guideway the prototype runs on.

Credit

SELF is a Zeleros product. IDMR contributed the exterior body design of the full-scale vehicle and built the small-scale running prototype body. Project, engineering and imagery © Zeleros — the renders and test-track photographs shown here are public material shared by Zeleros.

“Participé en el desarrollo de conceptos de interior/exterior para proyectos de hyperloop en Zeleros entre 2023–2024.”

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