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Software-Defined Vehicles: BlackBerry QNX Joins The SOAFEE SIG

BlackBerry QNX has joined the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE) Special Interest Group (SIG) as a voting member. SOAFEE is an Edge/Cloud collaborative effort in the automotive industry involving 42 organizations – now 43 with the addition of BlackBerry QNX. Its objective is to deliver a cloud-native architecture that will power the next generation of automotive and safety-critical systems for software-defined vehicles (SDVs), including mixed-criticality automotive applications.

Software-Defined Vehicles & Mixed-Criticality

An SDV manages operations, as well as enables new features and functionality almost entirely through onboard software. (See our Ultimate Guide to Software-Defined Vehicles for a closer look at SDVs).

While software will define the next chapter of automotive history, the foundational shift to SDVs also introduces unprecedented challenges involving performance, complexity, scalability, and of course, uncompromising functional safety and security.

One of these challenges includes a significantly more complex architecture, with highly integrated components that often must support an assortment of features — sometimes mixing capabilities with different safety requirements. Some of these features are critical to safety, like braking or steering, while others might be less crucial, like adjusting the radio or interior lighting. Solving this “mixed-criticality” issue is at the heart of the SOAFEE project.

Why Did BlackBerry QNX Join SOAFEE?

BlackBerry QNX is a long-standing trusted supplier of high-performance, reliable and safe software in the automotive and critical IoT markets. We work closely with customers and partners to enable future automotive architectures. As a result, our technology is trusted in over 215 million vehicles and deployed in embedded systems the world over. Now, as OEMs move to unified software architectures, collaborative initiatives like SOAFEE will be an important factor in the definition of next-generation SDVs.

Learn more about BlackBerry® QNX® software for the automotive industry.

Grant Courville

About Grant Courville

Grant Courville is Vice President of Products and Strategy at BlackBerry QNX.