Motional, the Aptiv-Hyundai $4 billion self driving joint venture, has adopted BlackBerry’s QNX Black Channel Communications tech for its driverless vehicles. The company becomes BlackBerry’s first customer to use QNX Black Channel Communications for driverless systems. The technology will enable Motional to provide safe data communication exchanges within the vehicle’s safety systems.

Certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, the automotive industry’s functional safety standard, QNX Black Channel Communications Technology is based on the safe data communication requirements identified in IEC 61508 and mitigation measures defined in AUTOSAR End-to-End communications protection profiles. 

QNX Black Channel is designed to make the nodes of data communication in embedded systems functionally safe. By encapsulating the data being exchanged and validating it with safety checks, it aims to protect data communication from systematic software faults, random hardware faults and transient faults while helping in the automatic prevention of damage from these failures. The software is also designed to have minimal impact on system performance.

“It’s a real privilege to contribute our technology to Motional, a leader in developing safe, self-driving vehicles,” said John Wall, SVP and Co-Head, BlackBerry Technology Solutions. “QNX Black Channel Communications Technology supports Motional’s mission to deliver ‘safety-first’ systems in an era in which driverless transportation is evolving at a rapid pace.”

“The safety of our vehicles is always Motional’s first priority,” noted Junsung Kim, Vice President of Infrastructure Software, Motional. “We look forward to leveraging BlackBerry QNX Black Channel Communications Technology in our next-generation vehicle development and continuing Motional’s exceptional safety legacy.”

BlackBerry has a broad portfolio of functional safety-certified software including its QNX® operating system, development tools and middleware for autonomous and connected vehicles. Automakers and Tier 1’s use BlackBerry QNX software in their advanced driver assistance, handsfree and infotainment systems, along with their digital instrument clusters and connectivity modules.