BlackBerry Limited and Jaguar Land Rover have entered into a multi-year agreement to collaborate and develop automotive technology. As part of the agreement, BlackBerry will license its QNX and Certicom technology to Jaguar Land Rover, as well as assign a team of engineers to support in the development of new Electronic Control Unit (ECU) modules. The first ECU project will be a next-generation infotainment system.
“Working with BlackBerry will enable us to develop the safe and secure next-generation connected car our customers want,” said Dave Nesbitt, Vehicle Engineering Director at Jaguar Land Rover. “Together with BlackBerry engineers, we will be able to access the most dynamic and up-to-date software to ensure the highest security required for our connected vehicles.”
BlackBerry currently provides OEMs around the world with technology to protect and mitigate hardware, software, applications and end-to-end systems from cyberattacks. BlackBerry's has clients like Baidu, Delphi, Denso, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Visteon among others.
“We are at a pivotal moment, where innovative automakers, such as Jaguar Land Rover, are realizing they need to take an active role in defining the software architecture for their vehicles,” said John Wall, SVP and GM of BlackBerry QNX, BlackBerry. “Connected and autonomous vehicles will react and drive based on rich data. Our platforms help process data efficiently and keep it secure and trusted. We are incredibly honored to work with Jaguar Land Rover and look forward to our teams working hand in hand to deliver an enhanced driving experience for their customers.”
According to reports, though car software is still a relatively small part of BlackBerry's business, it's becoming an important growth area. After jettisoning the smartphone unit due to shrinking sales, Chen has worked to shift the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's focus onto secure software for a range of different businesses, as well as taking other tech companies to court for allegedly using BlackBerry's old wireless patents.
