Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry and the US-based multinational technology giant Amazon have joined together to develop a cloud-based software platform for automakers and suppliers.
The new cloud-based platform is designed to standardize vehicle data and speed deployment of new revenue-generating features and services which can be used by automakers to improve driver and passenger experiences.
BlackBerry and Amazon Web Services (AWS) stated that the new vehicle data platform called IVY, will address the critical data access, collection and management problem of the automotive sector.
The IVY platform compresses the time to build, deploy and monetize in-vehicle applications and connected services across multiple brands and models, offering a smoother system for automakers to collaborate with a large number of developers to develop apps and services.
The cloud-based platform supports various vehicle operating systems and multi-cloud deployments to ensure compatibility across different models and brands. IVY is built on BlackBerry QNX, an operating system used by more than 175 million vehicles worldwide, which can normalize data from automobiles and AWS’s broad portfolio of services, including IoT and machine learning.
With BlackBerry IVY’s integrated capabilities, automakers can provide new features, functionality and performance to customers through their cloud-connected vehicles and open up new revenue streams and business models built on vehicle data.
IVY is designed to complement and run simultaneously with new generation digital vehicle architectures developed by Volkswagen, General Motors and other automakers.
“The biggest challenge that most carmakers have in getting applications in the vehicle or monetizing their data is that there is no standardized way to access the data,” says John Wall, head of BlackBerry Technology Solutions.
Both BlackBerry and AWS are targeting to set IVY as a standard platform over the auto industry like Apple and Google have done in mobile phones through their iOS and Android systems.
“Data and connectivity are opening new avenues for innovation in the automotive industry, and we share a common vision to provide automakers and developers with better insights so that they can deliver new services to consumers,” said John Chen the Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry.
IVY is expected to be installed on the first production vehicles in the model year 2023, said AWS executive Sarah Cooper. But both the companies refused to reveal the first automaker to use IVY.
