We covered the Ford Atlas' reveal at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, and when I look back on it, I think I like it even less. There's some good parts, but overall it feels fussy and overdesigned. Now that I've seen these early concept sketches for the truck, the reasons why it ended up that way make sense.
It looks like two divergent concepts were developed for the Atlas: Bullet Train, a sleek, very modern look that fits closer with Ford's other offerings, like the Focus and Fusion, and Locomotive, a rugged, purposeful utility-vehicle looking option.
Honestly, I prefer either of these designs to the over-blinged compromise that resulted out of the attempt to merge the designs. If I was in charge of Ford (currently on step 3 of my plan to make that happen; only 214 more to go) I'd have made Bullet Train into a new compact truck and used Locomotive for the full-sized F-150.
I do, however, like how in the slide where the opening-tailgate storage feature is being discussed, they use the word "hallowed" to refer to the space inside the tailgate. It's possible they meant "hollow," but I'd rather believe they find the interior of a truck tailgate to be a sort of numinous holy ground, steeped in myth and tradition.