TOKYO — What keeps BlackBerry CEO John Chen up at night? An outbreak of car hacking, or even an over-the-air hijacking of vehicles to commandeer them as remote-control weapons.
"I'm expecting it daily," Chen says. "I don't think it's a far-fetched thing."
Part of BlackBerry's mission, the Canadian company's 64-year-old global boss said in an interview here this month, is to prevent that from happening by locking down the computer systems driving today's cars.
Vehicle security is a top focus for the cellphone-maker-turned automotive supplier. BlackBerry is racing to tap expanding demand for the onboard vehicle software that runs and integrates everything from car entertainment and navigation to braking and fuel injection.
Sales of automotive and transportation products account for about 20 percent of BlackBerry's revenue, and that business is expanding at a brisk 18 percent, Chen said.
The growth is outpaced only by sales of its machine learning and artificial intelligence business, which is about the same size as its transportation business but growing at 25 percent, said Chen, a native of Hong Kong who graduated from Brown University and Caltech. Chen was brought in as BlackBerry's CEO in 2013 as part of a private equity infusion to help steer the company out of a troubling period as it lost its technology leadership and customers drifted away. He commutes between his home in California and the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.
The next step for BlackBerry will be combining its AI and automotive products.
Kerrigan Advisors’ proprietary annual OEM Survey of over 100 executives reveals that the majority of respondents are worried about the financial impact of Chinese automakers’ growing global market share, and most expect that the EV transition to be slower than expected. The survey also queried executives on their outlooks for dealership valuations and profitability, as well as their expectations for the future of dealer networks and facility requirements.
A new plan
A preview of what's in store will come in January at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas. BlackBerry will unveil a demonstration version of a product that uses AI to give the car's computer systems a "health check," and then guard against what might go wrong.
The system uses machine learning to judge what the normal state of the car should be, then compare it with what's happening in the vehicle. It not only looks under the hood at the engine and other systems that owners can't see, but at the human drivers themselves.
The idea is to monitor their seat position, steering habits, acceleration patterns and other signs to construct a model of what is normal for the driver.
If something is amiss, the system will raise a red flag — for example, if an unauthorized person is at the steering wheel.
BlackBerry wants to start selling the system within five years, Chen said.
Simple glitches
The system also would defend against hacking, but in today's more mundane reality, the immediate concern is simply nonmalicious software snags. A common technical problem for autos is the presence of mismatched versions of onboard software systems that don't seamlessly work together.
The risk of system breakdowns is on the rise as carmakers increasingly consolidate onboard software systems onto fewer, high-powered computer chips known as electronic control units.
BlackBerry has several products tackling the issue. One is called QNX, an onboard operating system that allows carmakers to use BlackBerry's infotainment system or simultaneously run a third-party system by suppliers such as Google. It is already installed in more than 150 million cars on the road, in such brands as Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Another is QNX Hypervisor, a guardian software that acts like a firewall to protect onboard systems.
The company's latest product, announced Sept. 11, is an integrated human-machine interface digital cockpit system that is based on QNX.
BlackBerry developed the system with Japanese supplier Denso Corp., and the technology debuts in the 2020 Subaru Outback crossover and Legacy sedan.
BlackBerry's product allows several different cockpit systems to run off the same microprocessor, including those that control the instrument cluster and infotainment system.
Chen cautions that no security system, BlackBerry's included, is foolproof against every attack, even though solutions are rapidly improving every generation.
Chen said of software glitches and hacking attempts: "The question is how much control a hacker will be able to take."
