BlackBerry Has a New Deal with Ford to Create Vehicle Software

There’s a division of BlackBerry called QNX that is crushing it right now. Not only are they working with Apple on some kind of self-driving car software, but they’ve just entered a deal with Ford to develop a whole series of software projects for their vehicles. This includes the infotainment system in the dashboard.

The Globe and Mail reports:

John Wall, senior vice-president and head of QNX Software Systems, announced the deal Monday and told reporters on a conference call that until now QNX’s contracts in the automotive industry have been with the so-called tier-1 suppliers, not directly with the big automakers.

“Software is becoming such an important piece… that the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] don’t want to rely on the tier-1s to provide these systems, but actually wants to develop systems themselves,” said Mr. Wall, who expects to sign more deals like this with other automakers in the future.

“I talk about this being an inflection in the industry … there’s several that feel software’s going to be a differentiator in the coming years, and as such they see it as important as a transmission and an engine. It’s something they very much feel is central to their brand.”

Okay, so maybe the smartphone side of the business isn’t going so well. The car side, on the other hand…