BlackBerry QNX is not for sale, said Vice President of Sales at BlackBerry Technology Solutions Derek Kuhn. BlackBerry Technology Solutions is currently in charge of QNX and is working to expand its portfolio of automotive offerings to include over-the-air software updates and back-end software for cars.
BlackBerry expanding QNX offerings
“Absolutely not, as far as I know,” Kuhn said in an interview last month with Staff Reporter Gabe Nelson. Kuhn’s reply came in response to the question: “QNX changed hands a couple of times in the last decade, and BlackBerry doesn’t have the market strength it had in 2010. Is QNX for sale?”
Replying to the question, the executive said BlackBerry’s leadership is actually “pressuring” him to expand the business. QNX is hiring more staff and winning more and more contracts. Kuhn said they are working to better their software and services for the IoT (Internet of Things), adding they have created a fully connected car system for the auto industry.
On the company’s IoT services, the executive said they provide over-the-air updates, data collection with analytics and also remote diagnostics. Commenting on the competition in the field, Kuhn said many companies are offering the services in “pieces,” but Blackberry is offering it “completely end to end.”
Focus on “piloted driving”
BlackBerry QNX is also working to stay ahead in the autonomous vehicles space and has been working for years with military groups, “whether they fly, swim or walk, so this is something that QNX has a tremendous amount of experience with,” Kuhn.
BlackBerry’s QNX is more interested in “piloted driving,” and Kuhn expect more driver safety systems to come up going forward. They are also working on middleware, helping companies develop more advanced systems. The team uses input from many gadgets such as cameras, machine vision, ultrasonic sensors, radar, to come up with a solution integrating all systems in a “seamless way,” said Kuhn.
BlackBerry may be struggling in the smartphone race, but it is the market leader in cars, thanks largely to its subsidiary QNX, which is now present in almost half of the in-car infotainment systems sold today. Most recently, QNX won a big contract to deliver its software for the latest version of Ford’s Sync system.
