BlackBerry bids au revoir to smartphones and bonjour to smart cars

By Lulu Chang Published December 19, 2016

BlackBerry is trading smartphones for smart cars. On Monday, the former mobile phone manufacturer will be switching gears and opening an autonomous driving research center, in a ceremony to be attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. BlackBerry has remained tight-lipped as of yet regarding any details about the new center, though we can expect further information once the research facility is officially opened.

While BlackBerry first rose to fame for its square-shaped phones with their signature physical keyboard (a feature that is now sorely missed by the Samsung and Apple generation), the company has said that it’s no longer in the mobile business (though it is making one final phone as a last hurrah). Rather, the Canadian company is investing more in its subsidiary QNX in hopes of developing advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technology, Reuters reports.

Recommended Videos

“What QNX is doing is providing the infrastructure that allows you to build higher-level algorithms and to also acquire data from the sensors in a reliable manner,” said Sebastian Fischmeister, a University of Waterloo associate professor with ties to QNX since 2009.

“Our play in this is that we provide the software foundation for these high-performance compute platforms,” QNX head John Wall said in an interview on Friday.

Soon, BlackBerry will be testing cars with autonomous features in Ontario, and the company has also signed a deal allowing it to work directly with Ford Motor Co. in an effort to bring self-driving ridesharing vehicles to the public by 2021. Similar partnerships are already underway with “more than one or two” other automakers, Wall said, though it might take some time for any progress to be fully realized.

“If they can prove that they have the whole package and the security, they could absolutely dominate the market” for autonomous vehicle operating systems, Sam Fiorani, an analyst at Auto Forecast Solutions, told Reuters.

So don’t cry for BlackBerry, friends — it’ll still be with us, just in a different form.

Former Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Topics

Cars

Order an Uber and a self-driving Mustang might show up

Electronics, Phone, Mobile Phone

Ordering an Uber in London could come with a surprise today. Instead of a conventional car and driver pulling up, you might find a Ford Mustang Mach-E that can drive itself. Uber has launched London's first public robotaxi service in partnership with British autonomous driving company Wayve. The service is available through the Uber app, meaning you don't need to download anything new or book a special type of ride to try it.

There is one important caveat. Although the cars will handle the driving themselves, a trained safety operator will initially sit behind the wheel, ready to intervene if necessary. Fully driverless rides are planned for a later stage. The launch fleet consists of electric Mustang Mach-Es equipped with cameras, radar, and Wayve's AI Driver technology. These systems give the vehicle a 360-degree view of what's happening around it. And if anywhere can put that technology through its paces, London seems like a pretty good candidate.

Cars

Range Rover Electric arrives with 543hp, 600km range, and a starting price of the moon

The electric Range Rover is here, and your wallet may need CPR

Range Rover EV

The Range Rover has never been shy about luxury, size or price, and its first fully electric version is carrying that tradition into the EV era. Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) first battery-electric Range Rover is now open for orders, starting at £154,070, or about $208,420. That makes it one of the most expensive electric SUVs on the market.

The electric model costs almost £50,000 more than the standard combustion-engine Range Rover. It is priced in the same territory as the electric Mercedes-Benz G 580 and not far from ultra-luxury gasoline SUVs such as the Bentley Bentayga.

Cars

A solar ambulance has successfully tackled 500 miles of difficult terrain

Stella Juva

For years, solar-powered vehicles have largely lived in the world of prototypes, university projects and ambitious demonstrations. Now, one has completed the kind of test that matters far more than a flashy concept reveal: it drove hundreds of miles through difficult terrain while carrying medical equipment and generating enough electricity to operate independently.

Called Stella Juva, the vehicle was developed by Solar Team Eindhoven, a group of 23 students from Eindhoven University of Technology and two other educational institutions. According to a CNN report, the team describes it as the world's first solar ambulance. Unlike a conventional ambulance, however, Stella Juva is designed less to rush patients to hospitals and more to bring medical care to people who cannot easily reach it.