Today, BlackBerry and L-SPARK, Canada’s leading software-as-a-service accelerator, held a Virtual Demo Day to showcase the success of five companies that took part in the second phase of the companys' joint start-up accelerator program. With an impressive range of technological innovation on display showing what can be achieved in just six months of intensive mentoring and development, the five start-ups presented and demonstrated their prototypes, each of which seek to address real-world transportation industry issues.
Launched last year in September with the aim of helping small and medium-sized technology enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses and bring new products to market, BlackBerry QNX helped each of the companies with research and development for connected and autonomous vehicle products focused on connected services and cloud connectivity to the vehicle.
Powered by BlackBerry QNX technology, meet the five companies looking to help shape the future of the transportation industry and the new products they’ve built to enhance the driving – and riding – experience:
- TRAINFO (Winnipeg, Manitoba) – Driver information system that prevents traffic delays and accidents at rail crossings. By integrating into the in-vehicle infotainment system built on BlackBerry QNX technologies, TRAINFO is helping drivers safely navigate at rail crossings and re-route to avoid delays caused by trains.
- Deeplite (Montreal, Quebec) – AI software technology that makes Deep Neural Networks faster, smaller and more energy-efficient. As part of the accelerator program, Deeplite used video data from an autonomous vehicle running on the BlackBerry QNX platform to demonstrate how their optimization software can improve vehicle reaction times and battery life.
- Northstar Robotics (Winnipeg, Manitoba) – Intelligent control systems that power networks of autonomous industrial vehicles. During the accelerator, Northstar developed an autonomous snow plow that runs on the BlackBerry QNX operating system.
- Sensor Cortek (Ottawa, Ontario) – AI software solutions that enhance autonomous vehicle perception systems. Working with BlackBerry QNX, Sensor Cortek has been able to demonstrate how it can transform the Radar from a rudimentary sensor to a highly capable component of the AV perception system by processing sensor data with its software-based AI solutions.
- Preteckt (Hamilton, Ontario) – Predictive diagnostics for commercial and municipal vehicle fleets (trucks and buses) with cloud-based machine learning software that uses real-time vehicle data to identify and diagnose maintenance issues. Working with BlackBerry QNX, Preteckt explored opportunities to access additional raw sensor data from vehicles to enhance its solution.
“Today’s demo day is a great illustration of the deep talent pool that exists within the Canadian technology ecosystem,” said Grant Courville, VP, Product Management and Strategy, BlackBerry QNX. “It was a real pleasure to work with these young start-ups and with the expertise, technology and mentorship we provided alongside L-SPARK, I’m confident that each is now even better prepared to be successful in the transportation, mobility and smart city sectors. I look forward to watching their progress and success in the years ahead.”
“When we launched our second cohort, the world looked very different. Yet, in spite of this unprecedented disruption, the companies, the mentors, and the BlackBerry QNX team have continued to work together. Today’s Demo Day celebrates their achievements and showcases this growing ecosystem of Canadian innovation to the world. Despite everything, we are resilient, we drive hard, and we continue to innovate,” said Leo Lax, Executive Managing Director of L-SPARK.
To learn more about the results of the second phase of the BlackBerry / L-SPARK Accelerator Program and to see a demo video of each of the innovative prototypes that the participating companies have built, please visit https://www.l-spark.com/accelerator/blackberry.