BlackBerry Ivy Middleware Promises to Ease Automotive App DevelopmentBlackBerry Ivy Middleware Promises to Ease Automotive App Development

BlackBerry’s new middleware software provides a standardized interface between vehicle hardware and applications.

Dan Carney, Senior Editor

April 20, 2022

3 Min Read
Blackberry dashboard.png
Image courtesy of BlackBerry

While BlackBerry is most strongly identified with the once-dominant smartphones with their signature physical keyboards, the company lives on as a software specialist, exploiting the secure foundation that once made its phones the go-to for government agencies with stringent security requirements.

When automakers began using software to operate vehicle functions that were once done using analog systems, many of them turned to BlackBerry for their operating system because of the security of that software.

Today, Blackberry software is in 195 million cars worldwide, and its QNX operating system has “orders of magnitude” fewer vulnerabilities discovered annually than the Linux-based operating systems in other cars, according to Jeff Davis, Senior Director, IVY Ecosystem at BlackBerry.

But a secure operating system is only the beginning, as carmakers seek to add connectivity and services, so BlackBerry has introduced a cloud-based middleware product that is designed to make app development for cars easier while relieving car companies of the burden of extensively testing each new application.

The idea is to standardize data access across all vehicles, regardless of brand, operating system, and cloud deployment model. By sending vehicle data to the cloud, BlackBerry Ivy lets automakers apply intelligence to data captured while ensuring data security. 

Related:BlackBerry Terminates Classic Smartphones

By creating an interface that app builders can use to create custom apps for cars using Ivy middleware, Ivy makes writing those apps simpler. This should increase the number of apps and, for those that involve subscription services, create new revenue streams for carmakers.

Having the BlackBerry IVY middleware layer can unify industries and accelerate the move to advanced smart cities with seamless communication between vehicles, infrastructure, and third parties.

Frost & Sullivan estimates that the IoT market for these various components of the ecosystem will top $45 billion by 2025. 

"BlackBerry IVY is a revolutionary, intelligent, edge-to-cloud software platform, which unites automotive industry participants to accelerate the development of connected-autonomous vehicles while simultaneously enabling smart cities around the world,” stated Nicolas Inchaustegui, Senior Consultant, Automotive, Transportation & Mobility for Frost & Sullivan.  “Today, BlackBerry has a significant footprint across the automotive industry and is central to smart cities.  With IVY, BlackBerry becomes even more fundamental to these markets.”

Blackberry diagram.png

BlackBerry Ivy facilitates easy communication between applications in the vehicle and other vehicles and infrastructure.

Ivy works by providing a standardized interface between data streaming in from vehicles’ sensors and the applications that can use that data, explained Davis. “It reaches out across all the centers in the vehicle, polls all the data, and normalizes the data. This allows you to use machine learning, cloud learning, to build insights from it.”

Related:QNX Tech Powers VisLab's Autonomous Car

And those insights can include the ability to create “synthetic sensors,” which Davis says are the aggregation of multiple sensors with artificial intelligence applied to the combined data. The ability to apply AI is one benefit of moving vehicles’ data to the cloud and the ability to do processing on the edge rather than onboard is another advantage, Davis reports.

BlackBerry has been working with prospective customers for Ivy for more than a year. “We have taken quite a few discussions to another level,” he said. “Talks include European, American, and Asian OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and startups.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Dan Carney

Senior Editor, Design News

Dan’s coverage of the auto industry over three decades has taken him to the racetracks, automotive engineering centers, vehicle simulators, wind tunnels, and crash-test labs of the world.

A member of the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year jury, Dan also contributes car reviews to Popular Science magazine, serves on the International Engine of the Year jury, and has judged the collegiate Formula SAE competition.

Dan is a winner of the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive writing, as well as the National Motorsports Press Association's award for magazine writing and the Washington Automotive Press Association's Golden Quill award.

AstonMartinVanquish_©AndyMorgan_025_copy_2.JPG

He has held a Sports Car Club of America racing license since 1991, is an SCCA National race winner, two-time SCCA Runoffs competitor in Formula F, and an Old Dominion Region Driver of the Year award winner. Co-drove a Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost to 16 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-accredited world speed records over distances from just under 1km to over 4,104km at the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France.

He was also a longtime contributor to the Society of Automotive Engineers' Automotive Engineering International magazine.

He specializes in analyzing technical developments, particularly in the areas of motorsports, efficiency, and safety.

He has been published in The New York Times, NBC News, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post, Hagerty, AutoTrader.com, Maxim, RaceCar Engineering, AutoWeek, Virginia Living, and others.

Dan has authored books on the Honda S2000 and Dodge Viper sports cars and contributed automotive content to the consumer finance book, Fight For Your Money.

He is a member and past president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers

Sign up for Design News newsletters

You May Also Like