Sensors specialist Transense has announced that it will be partnering US car making colossus General Motors (GM) in an expansion of its Flexplate project, a sensor used in driving technology. The company describes the flexplate as an integral part of the vehicle powertrain control system which has the potential to improve vehicle driveability, reduce fuel consumption and improve transmission shift quality. The move boosted the firm's share price 25.93% to 4.25p. Transense said: "As part of this process we have successfully negotiated a variation of the otherwise exclusive licence to Honeywell, permitting us to deal directly with various named companies including GM preferred Tier 1 suppliers." GM is currently evaluating further applications of the technology for real-time vehicle control.Chief executive officer of Transense, Graham Storey, said: "Gaining such a strong endorsement of our SAW sensor technology from an engineering team as highly regarded as GM's, reaffirms our belief in the commercial potential of our core technology and supporting patent portfolio. "The complexity, level of testing required and technical challenges we have overcome in bringing such a significant new technology to this stage of development cannot be underestimated, and it is testament to both GM's and Transense's technical teams that the project has progressed comparatively quickly." NR