Back in the early 2000s everyone seemed to have a BlackBerry. The built in keypad and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging system endeared everyone from A-List celebrities to members of the general public. Then the iPhone launched and killed it.<\/p>\n
But BlackBerry didn\u2019t go away, the company continued to operate and the chances are you\u2019re still using a BlackBerry every day. If you drive a car daily, anyway. The former cellphone manufacturer pivoted hard into software, and has been pretty successful on that front.<\/p>\n
But BlackBerry doesn\u2019t make a lot of noise about its software products, so you won\u2019t even know you\u2019re probably using them all the time. One of its most successful products is QNX, a \u201creal-time operating system\u201d used by a lot of vehicle manufacturers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built to handle safety-critical tasks which rely on very precise and predictable timing. Such as a vehicle reacting to a sensor input and slapping on the emergency brakes. While you can use something like Android or Linux for an infotainment system, they aren’t anywhere near accurate enough to manage something like an ADAS system.<\/p>\n
In addition to a vehicle\u2019s ADAS system, things like digital instrument clusters, audio systems, and infotainment panels, all use BlackBerry\u2019s software. It can also be used to help consolidate all of these functions onto a single chip. Which is a major plus as OEMs shift their business models towards more software-heavy vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n It does this through something called the QNX Hypervisor, which allows you to run a safety-critical function on the same chip as an infotainment system. The hypervisor shields critical systems and ensures that if the infotainment software crashes, it doesn\u2019t take the ADAS functions on the chip out with it. This sandboxing capability is also a major requirement for self-driving systems like BlueCruise and SuperCruise.<\/a><\/p>\n BlackBerry didn\u2019t make the software from scratch, instead it acquired QNX back in 2010. BlackBerry was still predominantly a hardware-focused phone company back then, so the acquisition flew under the radar to some extent. Then when smartphones ousted older styles of device, many just thought BlackBerry had collapsed.<\/p>\n The reason manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo, Honda, GM, and Ford all use BlackBerry\u2019s system is simple. It works, it\u2019s tested to a high standard, and developing their own systems would be a nightmare.<\/p>\n BlackBerry\u2019s QNX software has achieved a ISO 26262 certification, which is as high as it gets as far as automotive safety is concerned. QNX isn\u2019t new either, instead, it has been developed and built upon over decades. As it\u2019s quite possibly BlackBerry\u2019s main money maker, it undergoes constant testing and development.<\/p>\n While the likes of BMW have huge research and development budgets, and do like to create proprietary systems (as their ventures into AI and infotainment prove), just licensing QNX is a smarter move. The cost to develop something of the same standard would be astronomical, the chances of it being anywhere near as good as BlackBerry\u2019s effort are slim, and you\u2019re also taking on a lot of liability if something does go wrong due to a software issue. Instead, BMW has used QNX as the foundation of its Neue Klasse<\/a> software architecture.<\/p>\n Which is why BlackBerry\u2019s software is present in over 275 million vehicles at the time of writing, with that number only set to increase. If you\u2019ve bought a car in recent years, it\u2019s probably in your vehicle too. Though the chances of a manufacturer including a revived version of BBM in their infotainment offerings remain slim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in the early 2000s everyone seemed to have a BlackBerry. The built in keypad and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging … <\/p>\nWhy is BlackBerry so successful in the automotive space?<\/h2>\n