BlackBerry Is Now a Self-Driving Car Company and Plans to Spend Like One
![Blackberry's Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen speaks during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain.](https://cdn.nextgov.com/media/img/cd/2016/12/19/121916blackberryceoNG/860x394.jpg?1627520573)
Blackberry's Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen speaks during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. Manu Fernandez/AP File Photo
The company is currently testing autonomous vehicles on public Canadian roads.
While BlackBerry’s QNX division has been working on automotive software for 20 years, it’s better known for its short-lived stint as king of the business smartphone.
Now, the Canadian company is falling back to its roots. BlackBerry previously announced its intentions of becoming a self-driving car company, even testing autonomous vehicles on public Canada roads. These days, it’s reportedly ready to commit to spending C$100 million (USD $75 million) over the next few years on an autonomous automotive facility in Ottawa.
BlackBerry might be well-situated to make strides in the field. Its automotive info-tainment software runs in 60 million cars today, and Canada has become a hotbed of artificial intelligence research. The country is heavily incentivizing AI work within its borders, giving more than $200 million this year to continue academic research.
The company that hedged its bets on physical keyboards will now focus on two areas: AI that can assist a driver on the road (seen as a way to ramp toward increasingly autonomous systems), and building “connected cars” that communicate with other vehicles and surrounding infrastructure to drive more safely.
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