Ford and GM Unite for Fuel-Saving Transmissions

Let's call them the Detroit 2...

Ford Motor and General Motors (News - Alert) (the two biggest of the Detroit 3) have announced they will team up to develop nine-speed and 10-speed automatic transmissions. The partnership is aimed at saving fuel and improving performance. That each auto company is going in on the new transmissions (which are most compatible with smaller engine) together is less about swallowing pride and more about saving costs.

Developing these new transmissions is a complicated and pricey endeavor. By joining forces, Ford and GM could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

While the two auto top dogs say they're already at work on the project, they don't have much else to share, and admit they don't have a timeline of when to expect the gearboxes that will share parts.

The transmission Ford and GM are working on looks to incorporate more speeds – and more speeds makes for more mileage and better performance as the car's engine can work more efficiently.

But good transmission is dependent on good software. Not too long ago, six-speed automatics burst on the scene as the new trend in auto performance. But the gearbox control software behind these transmissions was flawed, yielding complaints about poor shifting, and ultimate non-success.

It's not often that we see two major competing companies coalesce to develop a single offering – but it can legally be done. So as long as they manufacture and tune the offering individually (as GM and Ford say they will), the otherwise unaffiliated companies can have shared engines.

Other automakers have collaborated in the past. Chrysler, Hyundai and Mitsubishi (News - Alert) jointly developed engines that they each separately used from 2005 to 2009.

Nine- and 10-speed transmissions could be a very exciting development for the auto industry. Seven- and eight-speed transmissions are already common among luxury brands, and Chrysler is a big winner for using eight-speed boxes in its mainstream big cars and Ram pickups.