INSIDE QNX’S CAR-TESTING GARAGE
OTTAWA• There’ s a good chance the garage at Black
Berry Ltd.’ s QNX headquarters in Ottawa will be empty when a snowstorm hits.
The three slate- grey cars that normally reside in the garage (more of a showroom crossed with a computer lab) — a Jeep and Mercedes, both wrapped in matte vinyl, and a Lincoln, each equipped with millions of lines of QNX code — will likely be out on the road, testing the sensors, cameras and software needed for connected, automated and, one day, completely self-driving vehicles.
Inclement weather is one of the biggest hurdles for self-driving cars, making Ottawa the perfect test climate, said Grant Courville, BlackBerry QNX vice- president of product management, on a tour of the facility — the heart of QNX, which BlackBerry has pinned much of its hopes for future success.
BlackBerry in 2010 bought QNX and its wellknown software for powering critical systems such as nuclear power plants, surgical equipment and air traffic control. Eight years later, QNX software is in more than 60 million vehicles, mostly to provide entertainment and mapping systems.
But BlackBerr y hopes to make more money from each car by expanding the software’ s functionality. Eventually, the functions will merge with more traditional ones into one dashboard controlling everything from music to safety critical functions like warning lights.
“We want to be the software platform for the car,” Courville said, likening QNX in a car to the body’s nervous system.
QNXh as already expanded from infotainment systems to advanced driverassistance systems such as automatic emergency braking and lane assist. These features will be the building blocks for self- driving cars, Courville said.
Five years from now, he estimates many other functions will be automated, but he rolls his eyes at suggestions fully automated “level five” vehicles will be on the road by then. “We tend to be very conservative,” he said, predicting instead it will be 15 to 20 years before fully automated vehicles can operate “anywhere, anytime, anyplace.”
The key impediment is the risk to public safety, especially after the “extremely unfortunate” incident in Arizona where Uber’s automated vehicle killed a pedestrian. The vehicle did not contain any QNX software, Courville said.
Nevertheless, the pressure is on to develop software more people will pay for, given BlackBerry needs revenue growth.
BlackBerry recently struck deals with automakers Ford Motor Co. and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, auto suppliers Denso Corp. and Delphi Technologies, and technology companies Baidu Inc. and Nvidia Corp. to use QNX technology in their products. It points to these partnerships as proof its strategy is working.