QNX Software to Present Autonomous Car Strategies at Munich Conference

QNX Software Systems, now formally part of BlackBerry Technology Solutions, will take to the Telematics Update conference stage in Munich this November to deliver a presentation on strategies for the future of the autonomous car.

Billed by auto manufacturer Kia as “the Paris Motorshow of the telematics world”, the Telematics Update conference will present over 100 industry speakers from Volkswagen, the United Nations, Daimler, Facebook, Toyota, Renault, Denso, Ford, and FIAT, among others.

Emil Dautovic, QNX’s European auto market business development manager, said, “Autonomous technology is on the minds of all major automotive companies, which makes it a highly relevant topic to discuss at this event.”

Telematics, broadly speaking, is the M2M space, historically with a focus on automotive technology but now referring to any sensor-based, location-sensitive technology, in which home appliances, automobiles, medical devices, truck fleets and cars and buses, as well as municipal and industrial infrastructure, all interact with “the cloud”, folding in masses of data collected from sensors, GPS and mobile technology. It’s basically the underlying structure of the Internet of Things.

QNX’s presentation will incorporate a “V2X and Autonomous Car Track” event taking place on November 10, the opening day of the conference. V2X stands for Vehicle-to-Vehicle or Vehicle-to-Infrastructure technology.

The company’s strategy for pervasively implementing the autonomous car includes consolidating the approach to certification and cost effectiveness between Tier 1 parts suppliers and major automakers.

Back in May, BlackBerry CEO John Chen was only hinting at “a major play in the M2M space” that the otherwise beleaguered handset manufacturer had in the works.

Months later, his major play turns out to be BlackBerry Technology Solutions, which will incorporate Ottawa’s QNX division, Toronto-based security software company Certicom, Paratek antenna tuning technology and an approximately 44,000-strong patent portfolio, along with the blue-sky Internet of Things lab called Project Ion.

BlackBerry Technology Solutions will be led by Sandeep Chennakeshu, former president of Ericsson Mobile Platforms and CTO of Sony-Ericsson. Chennakeshu personally holds 73 patents and has over 25 years of professional experience in intellectual property licensing, product development and R&D in the wireless and semiconductor industries.

As several municipalities worldwide begin implementing their “smart city” strategies, using data and technology to make city planning and services more efficient and transparent, M2M solutions have begun to unveil how their V2X technology might act in a connected urban environment.

QNX, for example, has talked recently about how connected auto technology could help get rid of potholes by communicating road conditions from each driver’s on-board sensors back to City Hall.