Any chance this is the chassis of SpaceX's inevitable Mars Rover being tested on Earth first?

Elon tweeted [1] that the pressurized edition will be the "official truck of Mars" - which I take to mean it will be the rover.

[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1197627433970589696

I don't think you'll need hard exterior on Mars. Instead you need protection from extreme weather.

You don't even need that. Mars' atmosphere is very thin. Windspeeds can be extreme but there is so little mass being moved that the generated forces are pretty minimal.

Are you saying the wind storm that stranded Whatney in The Martian was inaccurate?

So much for that book being well researched...

It's been noted again and again. The author also has stated multiple times that this was a deliberate inaccuracy for story purposes.

Supposedly that's about the only technical liberty they took. The rest is said to be pretty realistic.

I meant extreme temperature.