Blackberry to open autonomous vehicle center

BlackBerry Ltd. and the Canadian government are opening a research center for self-driving cars that raises the likelihood of government sponsorship for the previous cell phone maker’s car programming unit.

CEO John Chen and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared the center at QNX’s headquarters close to Ottawa, Ontario, where it will be based. BlackBerry’s QNX unit has been building softwares to keep running in-auto entertainment frameworks for quite a long time. In January this current year, the organization said it was attempting to motivate automakers to utilize its projects to run self-driving components  in an offer to keep its items relevant to the advancement of car innovation.

Wall said the company is in cutting edge discussions with “more than one or two” other major worldwide automakers about comparable partnerships, additionally advised that the buildup of robot cars would set aside a long opportunity to be completely figured out.

QNX as of now powers infotainment and telematics frameworks in a huge number of cars, giving a choice to automakers watching the speed at which firms, for example, Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O), carpooling company Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL], and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google have propelled their self-driving tasks.

“If they can prove that they have the whole package and the security, they could absolutely dominate the market” for autonomous vehicle operating systems, said Sam Fiorani, an analyst at Auto Forecast Solutions.
Dangers remain, including the test from chipmakers, for example, Intel Corp (INTC.O) who, peering toward interest for their processors in future robot cars, could rebate or give away their own security and safety programming with a specific end goal to offer more hardware.

“Some of these companies can afford to lose a lot of money in their pursuit of adoption and market share,” said Chris Rommel, who leads embedded technology research at VDC Research.