BlackBerry creates Innovation Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

BlackBerry just announced the QNX Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre (AVIC). Housed within the BlackBerry QNX facility in Ottawa, Ontario, the centre will accelerate the realization of connected and self-driving vehicles by developing production-ready software independently and in collaboration with partners in the private and public sector. 

As part of this initiative, BlackBerry QNX plans to recruit and hire local software engineers to work on ongoing and emerging engineering projects for connected and autonomous cars. The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario recently approved BlackBerry QNX to test autonomous vehicles on Ontario roads as part of a pilot program. One of the centre’s first projects will be supporting this pilot as well as BlackBerry QNX’s work with the University of Waterloo, PolySync, and Renesas Electronics to build an autonomous concept vehicle. 

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BlackBerry demos OTA updates for IoT and connected car solutions

BlackBerry is demonstrating its next-generation over-the-air (OTA) update solution for connected cars as well as Internet of Things applications. Enabling these connected devices to remotely receive software updates and fixes, just like how smartphones and tablets get updated today, is a promising move forward for IoT.

BlackBerry says this solution will help automakers cut maintenance costs, reduce expensive recalls, improve customer satisfaction, and keep vehicles up to date with compelling new features long after they have rolled off the assembly line. The OTA update solution is part of the BlackBerry(R) IoT Platform and is designed to deliver secure, globally scalable update services for maintaining and enhancing the software in infotainment systems, telematics units, and other end-points in the vehicle. 

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Ford SYNC AppLink and Life360 Introduce features to keep drivers focused and connected

Modern families want to stay connected to each other and to friends, even when they’re on the go and miles apart. Ford Motor Company and Life360 want to help.

“We are thrilled to be working with Ford to take on such an important issue and help reduce texting and driving”

Ford will be the first automaker to offer in-car use of the popular family locator app Life360 with Drive Mode – a new capability that helps drivers stay focused on the road by alerting their family and friends not to text when they are driving.

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Microsoft dumped in favour of BlackBerry for Ford Sync

The Ford Sync in-car infotainment system was proudly powered by Microsoft but that's changing as Ford has opted to go with BlackBerry to power Ford Sync moving forward.

The up and coming Sync 3 will make use of QNX which has a reputation for rock solid performance and embedded applications. QNX is no stranger to car infotainment systems, it partnered with Apple for CarPlay functionality that seamlessly runs iPhone functionality on vehicles that allow it. While Microsoft and Ford collaborated on Sync for seven years, it seems what the carmaker and many users found it too sluggish so going to QNX made sense in the long term. We hope to get a demo of Ford Sync 3 at CES 2015.

Source: Engadget