Tesla D announcement — its all-wheel drive + safety features — updated

Update — Tesla D from the bottom up
Credit: Mark Ralston—AFP/Getty Images/Time

Making good on his tweet of a few days ago, at 7pm US Pacific Time, Thursday 09 October, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, revealed "D" & "something else."

As previously suggested in these pages, the "D" stands for dual motors, one driving the front wheels, the other driving the back, providing all wheel drive.

Tesla claims that unlike fossil fuel vehicles, the addition of 4WD has improved efficiency, yielding improvements in acceleration, range & top speed.

Update 11 October: Tesla claims range at a steady 65 mph is improved from 261 miles for the standard Model S to 295 miles for the 85D.

And the "something else"? Driver assistance features, which have been referred to as "auto-pilot". They include:

● change lane on driver use of the turn indicator
● automatically apply the brakes to avoid a collision
● ability to read speed signs & reduce speed if necessary

http://chargedevs.com/newswire/tesla-d-is-more-revolutionary-than-you-think/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/10/09/tesla-musk-safety-driver-aids/16986665/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tesla-announcement-sparks-speculation-26082605

http://time.com/3487514/tesla-motors-d-not-self-driving/ / luxury electric car maker Tesla Motors Model S sedan upgrade faster safer all-wheel-drive CEO Elon Musk something else dual motor rear-wheel-drive power front wheels powering rear heavy less efficient optimizing optimise optimize top speed 155 mph 130 mph rocket SpaceX safety features steer itself lane brake automatically move the car over a lane when driver turn signal use cameras read speed limit signs adjust car's speed auto pilot drive itself driver-assist features Raj Rajkumar pioneer self-driving cars Carnegie Mellon University /