BlackBerry was once a dominant player in the mobile market but the company’s fortunes took a turn for the worse in the market. It has more or less signed away its life when it comes to smartphones. Chinese manufacturer TCL now has the exclusive license to build and sell BlackBerry-branded smartphones. The Canadian company itself is now focusing on software and future avenues of growth. Self-driving car technology happens to be on the list. BlackBerry has now opened its self-driving car technology research center in Canada.
BlackBerry’s self-driving car technology research center is located in Ottawa, Canada. It’s one of the three companies that have received clearance from the province’s government to test self-driving cars on public roads.
BlackBerry might not be the name you associate with smart car technologies and that’s fine because it’s actually QNX that’s working in this space. QNX is a smart car technology company that BlackBerry acquired back in 2010 from Harman International.
This new research center is basically an extension of QNX’s existing operations in Ottawa but they showcase how BlackBerry is truly pivoting to a software company that’s focused on creating new vehicles of growth for itself.
The company is going to use Ford Lincoln cars retrofitted with advanced hardware that enables them to drive on their own for its tests. BlackBerry will also be working with Ford directly on areas other than self-driving cars, including but not limited to infotainment, security software, and more.
Filed in . Read more about BlackBerry and Self-Driving Cars. Source: reuters