Blackberry and Jaguar Land Rover to partner on autonomous vehicles Posted on : Sep 05 - 2019

It will be the first time that Blackberry's QNX platform will be integrated with Cylance's artificial intelligence technology.

Blackberry and Jaguar Land Rover have announced that they will work together to develop new autonomous vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies.

The two companies will use Blackberry's QNX operating system and Blackberry Cylance to develop a range of capabilities to bolster vehicle safety, including predictive software maintenance and cyber threat protection, in Jaguar Land Rover's next-generation vehicle architecture.

Under the partnership, Blackberry will also help Jaguar Land Rover identify potential security vulnerabilities found in connected and autonomous vehicles.

"BlackBerry is a trusted partner of the automotive industry because of our heritage and innovations in secure communications," Blackberry CEO John Chen said.

"We are pleased to be Jaguar Land Rover's chosen partner for safety-certified technology, as we advance Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to transform automotive safety."

This announcement marks the first integration of Cylance's AI technology into Blackberry's solution since it bought the security company at the end of last year, a deal that was worth $1.4 billion. It was the largest acquisition for Blackberry to date.

At the time, Blackberry said it would expand Cylance's capabilities across BlackBerry's portfolio, including QNX, its safety-certified embedded OS that is deployed in more than 120 million vehicles and medical devices. Blackberry said that, over time, it plans to integrate Cylance technology with its BlackBerry Spark communications platform.

Not long after the acquisition, Blackberry launched a security credential management service designed for smart cities and transportation services so autonomous vehicles could securely communicate with infrastructure, such as traffic lights and roads.

During its first quarter financial results in June, Blackberry reported a net loss of $35 million. It was the first quarterly report since the company reorganised into three business units: IoT, Blackberry Cylance, and Licensing.

At the time, Chen noted the company's integration with Cylance was ahead of schedule, with back-office, personnel, sales and R&D teams almost completely merged. View More