Blackberry is partnering Marelli China to provide major Chinese vehicle brands with the Blackberry QNX platform for digital cockpits. The QNX platform will be integrated with Marelli China’s eCockpit and Digital Cluster solutions. The integrated offering is expected to be commercialised by a wide range of Marelli’s Chinese auto OEM customers.

The collaboration builds on an existing partnership between the two firms, with Marelli since 2016 using Blackberry’s QNX Hypervisor for Safety and QNX Software Development Platform (SDP) 7.0 to develop embedded cockpit systems which have been deployed with four major Chinese automakers.”

“It’s a privilege to work with MARELLI to deliver this innovative solution with a view to providing the kind of in-car experience that drivers want, with the safety, security, and reliability they need,” said Kaivan Karimi, Senior Vice President and Co-Head of BlackBerry Technology Solutions, BlackBerry. “Together we will enable leading Chinese automakers to provide customers with access to the latest applications that consumers want while simultaneously securing and sand-boxing the infotainment portion of the digital cockpit so that if an app crashes, or its security is  compromised or needs to be updated, it will not impact mission critical-driving functions.”

“New automotive technologies are evolving faster than ever in the competitive global auto market,” said Wisea Wu, General Manager, MARELLI Electronics China. “The partnership with BlackBerry aligns with our strategies and allows us to develop next-generation, safe and reliable digital cockpits for our customers, which we believe will help Chinese automakers to boost the security and connectivity of their vehicles.”

The QNX Platform for Digital Cockpits combines BlackBerry’s QNX Hypervisor for Safety, QNX Platform for Instrument Clusters, QNX Platform for Infotainment, and a secure Android implementation. It is designed to enable automakers to offer a reliable and secure QNX-based digital instrument cluster and infotainment system that provide access to the latest Android-based applications from a single ECU.