Canadian technology firm BlackBerry's QNX operating system will safeguard advanced graphics chip-maker Nvidia's self-driving platform.
BlackBerry QNX’s safety-certified operating system has been chosen to be the foundation for NVIDIA’s functionally safe AI self-driving development platform. https://t.co/FgihHfJJLb
— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) January 8, 2018
Blackberry said QNX can secure Android applications like Google Maps, Google Play Music and other Google apps.
Apart from driving Nvidia's artificial intelligence-based offering, BlackBerry's embedded software was also on display inside a 2018 Aston Martin DB11 and a 2017 Range Rover Supercharged at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas.
"Behind the dash, BlackBerry’s QNX Hypervisor serves as the traffic cop making sure the three environments (cluster, infotainment, applications) do not interfere with one another by securely isolating them and directing communications," the company said in a statement.
"By doing this, if an Android app crashes, is compromised, or needs to be updated, it will not impact the rest of the cockpit functions," it added.
The software will also handle acoustics management in the car that will make it easy for passengers to have conversations with each other, along with securing IoT devices connected to the car.
High-profile collaborations
The Canadian tech major said the latest partnership was further proof of a revival in fortunes, which nosedived after its trademark smartphones lost popularity.
"We are no longer in turnaround mode and are pointed in the right direction," said John Chen, Blackberry's chief executive officer.
The company now generates 85% of its sales from software and services.
BlackBerry has sealed a number of high-profile collaborations over the last 18 months for its enterprise software, including a tie-up with Indian design company Tata Elxsi last November.
Last week, BlackBerry partnered with Baidu to power the Chinese internet giant's open Apollo platform for building autonomous and connected vehicles.
In September last year, the company had said that Delphi (now Aptiv), one of the largest Tier1 automotive suppliers in the world, had chosen BlackBerry QNX to be the OS for Aptiv’s autonomous driving platform.
In October, it announced that another global Tier1 auto supplier, Yanfeng Visteon, had selected BlackBerry's QNX software to power its next-generation digital instrument cluster.
The company had signed an agreement with Qualcomm in December to optimise select hardware platforms with BlackBerry’s QNX software for a series of applications.
Blackberry had also made public a partnership with DENSO and Intel in December to bring to the market what it believes to be the world’s first integrated HMI (Human Machine Interface) platform, which will provide timely heads-up warnings and navigational alerts directly on the dashboard or via the audio system.