Ford Teams up with Blackberry to Make Autonomous Cars

Ford has extended its partnership with Blackberry in order to work together on automotive software. This agreement is the outcome of Blackberry’s drive to expand beyond the smartphone market and move into enterprise software like self-driving technology.

Ford is already using software made by BlackBerry’s QNX unit for the company’s Sync3 in-car infotainment system, but had acquired it through Panasonic Corp.

The new agreement between both companies eliminates the intermediary as Blackberry will work directly with Ford on making more software products, according to QNX general manager John Wall.

Ford has been investing quite heavily in self-driving and smart technology. The automotive major has ambitious plans to sell 100, 000 robot taxis by 2021 and to sell self-driving cars to customers by the middle of the next decade. It has been collaborating with several startups to develop technology for collision avoidance which would ensure that a car brakes automatically when it spots something in its path.

The deal between Ford and Blackberry will help Ford to strengthen its expertise in these areas. QNX is used almost exclusively for in-car infotainment systems, and is used in over 60 million cars worldwide. Blackberry has lately been working along with Ford on further developing QNX software that is already being used in Ford vehicles. According to Wall, Blackberry could work with other automotive companies as well as QNX is used by over 40 different carmakers.