While it may be a little late to the dual-clutch party, inBMW's situation this may be a case of better-late-then-never. Before the yearis out, BMW will be offering drivers of the 335i Coupé and 335i Convertible theoption of a new seven-speed double-clutch sports automatic transmission,replacing the previous optional 6-speed Steptronic gearbox. The six-speedmanual will remain as standard.

The European Union has taken the first major steps to establishing a next-generation vehicle-to-vehicle communications system by passing a motion today to reserve an EU-wide frequency band for vehicle applications. With a targeted goal of reducing road accidents, the motion aims at enabling co-operative systems between carmakers and is expected to lead to an eventual roll-out of the first production examples shortly after 2010.

Australia doesn't yet have the same overwhelming congestion that plagues some major cities such as London, which has had to introduce drastic measures in order to combat the problem. Nevertheless, Australian roads and traffic management are far from operating at peak efficiency, resulting in frustration, money lost as workers and business vehicles wait in traffic, and in more than a few cases, road rage and even crashes. Audi's Travolution traffic management system takes a new approach to solving the evolving problem, while Victoria's Suna Traffic Channel does something about the problem now.

Poor fuel economy and high conversion costs, even with government subsidy, are some of the arguments against converting a car to run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a widely-known alternative fuel found in abundance in Australia. A new system, called Just Think Green, developed by Australian LPG Warehouse promises to remedy the fuel economy issue, and says the system is cost-effective thanks to the lower price of LPG fuel compared to petrol.