BlackBerry to announce major reboot of QNX in-car
BlackBerry to announce major reboot of QNX in-car system
Vito Pilieci, Postmedia News | 13/06/05 | Last Updated: 13/06/04 5:48 PM ET
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Postmedia NewsTo showcase what’s possible with the platform, QNX has brought its recently unveiled Bentley GTC as well as a recently modified Jeep Wrangler Sahara.
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A completely overhauled in-car operating system from Ottawa’s QNX Software Systems Inc. is proof QNX owner BlackBerry is making good on a promise to push its software into non-traditional markets.
The CAR Platform 2.1 will allow automotive firms to install Android applications until now off-limits for vehicles, as well as to more easily create digital dashboards and heads up displays.
Details of the new system are set to be announced at the Telematics Detroit Conference Wednesday.
“Automakers need to tap into the rapid innovation of the mobile app community — it’s the surest way to keep vehicles fresh with new and engaging features,” Andy Gryc, senior automotive product marketing manager at QNX, said in an interview.
“We’ve looked at it for a relatively long time in automotive, having customers ask us about it and doing technical and business evaluation,” Mr. Gryc said.
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Consumers will be able to download mapping services, online music applications and games directly into vehicles equipped with the 2.1 operating system.
This addresses the requests of many in the auto industry who wanted to take advantage of applications available to Android users without using Android to create a whole new in-car operating system.
To showcase what’s possible with the platform, QNX has brought its recently unveiled Bentley GTC as well as a recently modified Jeep Wrangler Sahara. Both run the new system.
The system is designed to handle everything from monitoring an automobile’s diagnostics and presenting the speedometer on a digital dashboard through to infotainment such as presenting emails and text messages and playing movies and music.
Android was designed by Google Inc. to run portable computing devices like cellular phones and tablets, and reprogramming it for cars would take too long, according to QNX. It would not only need to speak to on-board diagnostic systems, but it would have to be incredibly stable. It would also have to be secure.
According to a report by researcher F-Secure Labs in May, more than 91% of all viruses affecting mobile devices specifically target Android. While most viruses are coded to give access to a device or steal personal information, there is no reason they couldn’t be written to override automotive safety features .
Security is something QNX knows well. The company’s technology is used in cardiac-monitoring systems, nuclear power plants and weapons systems. The Crusher, an unmanned six-wheel vehicle developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center for the United States Army in 2006, navigates with the help of a computer that runs on QNX Neutrino software.
Mr. Gryc said the company’s new 2.1 operating system comes with a “compartment” for Android devices. It allows consumers to segregate their Android downloads so a malicious virus won’t have access to critical systems within the vehicle.
“Android is in its own container,” he said. “So whatever you do from a downloadable application standpoint is contained. It isn’t going to be messing up or jeopardizing your other programs.”
The company took a similar approach when it designed BlackBerry’s new BB10 operating system. That also separates personal applications from more critical business applications and files. Much of BB10 is based on the same software QNX uses to power automobiles.
The announcement of the new operating system comes barely a month after the BlackBerry Live trade show, the company’s annual event in which it highlights plans for the year ahead. Company chief executive Thorsten Heins said then that the firm’s top goal in the coming months is to bring “mobile computing” to automobiles around the world.
QNX, which was purchased by Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry (then Research in Motion) in 2011 for $200-million, is the leading provider of software for in-car entertainment systems, a market expected to grow 12% annually to reach US$14.4 billion by 2016, according to a recently released report. QNX competes with Microsoft Corp. as well as JVC in the space.
There are now more than 30 million automobiles around the world running QNX software.
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