sciencetech-blog

comments

Elon Musk has teased a potential new car or technology from Tesla that will be revealed next week.

On Twitter he revealed that 'the D' would be unveiled on 9 October - and what exactly that might be has internet commenters abuzz. 

Some have suggested it may be a new type of driver-assisted electric car while others have noted similarities in the teased vehicle's appearance to the previous Model S.

California-based Tesla will reveal a new car or technology next week. The development was teased by CEO Elon Musk on Twitter, with an official announcement planned for 9 October. 'About to unveil the D and something else,' he wrote with an image (shown)

Features speculated on include speed assist, a lane warning system and automatic braking.

In a post on Twitter Musk said: 'About to unveil the D and something else.'

But when internet commenters revealed that 'the D' had some rather rude connotations, Musk let slip some more information.

'I love the Internet. Comments had me literally ROFL. No, it wasn't intentional. Glad I didn't mention the other letter!'

Exactly what sort of car or technology 'the D' might be is so far a mystery.

Some have suggested the other letter might be a 'P', although what either could stand for is unknown.

On the Tesla Motors forum on Reddit one commenter speculates that Musk may announce driver assist technology for existing Tesla cars.

'Teaser image shows the model S and the front which carries all the sensors and hardware for Driver Assist,' said user skiesforme.

And the 'something else' alluded to by Musk may be other types of driver assist technology: speed assist, lane departure warning and so on.

On the Tesla forums meanwhile, others speculated that it might be a car with four-wheel drive.

Based on Musk's next tweet (shown) some have suggested the announcement may be a driver-assisted version of one of Tesla's previous cars such as the Model S. In the image the teased car looks to be similar to the Model S. Earlier this year Tesla revealed the 'Model 3' mainstream electric car

The Tesla Model S, shown, is a five-door luxury electric car that was first introduced in June 2012. It has a range of 265 miles (426km) on one charge and, as of last December, more than 25,000 had been sold world wide. Some have suggested the front of 'the D' looks similar to the Model S

Earlier this year in July Tesla unveiled the Model 3, a more mainstream version of their other electric vehicles priced around £30,000 in the UK and $35,000 in the US.

At the time Musk unveiled his displeasure at being unable to call it the 'Model E' due to legal action from Ford.

The previous two Tesla cars are called the Model S and the model X, and Musk apparently wanted to spell out the word 'sex' with all three.

'We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E,' Musk told Auto Express at the time.

'I thought this is crazy, Ford's trying to kill sex! So we'll have to think of another name.'

Exactly what the letter 'D' for the new announcement is trying to spell if anything, though, remains to be seen.