DRIVE OS vs QNX Until recently, Blackberry’s very secure QNX operating system was the most common in modern cars. It was valued because of its security and maturity, having been standardized in nuclear power plants years ago. But QNX has a broad set of uses, and its use as an automotive OS has been relatively recent in its lifespan.
So, while QNX is one of the most secure operating systems in the market being used for cars and has some of the same advantages as any cross-OEM operating system supplied by a 3rd party, it also wasn’t designed for cars but retrofitted to them, making it potentially less ideal than a purpose-built OS for cars.
DriveOS, on the other hand, stems from NVIDIA’s deep understanding of personal computers and cars, meaning it is potentially easier to patch and update, and it already has many of the hardware drivers needed for today’s cars. It better integrates with NVIDIA’s automotive solutions, including their ever-more advanced autonomous driving solutions.
It was developed in conjunction with NVIDIA’s automotive OEM partners; it is based on Linux so that there are plenty of programmers who know how to work with it, and given NVIDIA leads the world right now with AI hardware, it provides what should be a lower cost, more reliable, path to creating ADAS systems (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems).
NVIDIA’s DriveOS sits on top of their technology stack, which includes their DGX platform for creating AI solutions; Omniverse, their solution for simulation-based training for robotics and vehicles; Drive AGX, their ADAS solution, and their host of developer tools to create a framework so that any car company can bring to market and advanced automotive solution relatively quickly.
This isn’t to say QNX is bad, it isn’t, it is one of Blackberry’s most successful products, only that it is generally better to have an OS that is purpose built over one that has been modified from something else. For instance, Microsoft took Windows, built for PCs, and then tried putting it in phones and cars, but neither effort worked well. Google created Android for phones, which has been more successful because it was purpose-built, not converted.