BlackBerry-driven robo-car spins its RIMs across Canada

Today, a trio of self-driving cars – including a BlackBerry-powered ride – hit the streets in Canada for the first time. The autonomous vehicles will be tested by their manufacturers to assess their safety and control systems in the real world. Ontario became the first province in Canada to allow robotic autos on the road on …

[Anonymous Coward]

Me for one

I welcome those cars in Eastern part of Canada in about two months when the first serious snow fall will show up, I hope their sensors will be good at diagonal parking. Oh, and they should also add a second driver to man the shovel.

[Old one]

Excellent test roads

Really have been wondering just how these systems will deal with snow slush & freezing rain. what happens when another vehicle splashes slush up as they are passing? Will radar and sensors go into panic avoidance and slam on the brakes so the normal car behind runs into the back of it.

Are sensors heated for freezing rain or freezing slush as most seem to be positioned at the leading edge and below the level of the hood? What parameters happen when you get into a heavy lake effect snowfall that effects everything including GPS signals. Is there a backup system... take someone who buys one and doesn't have the actual bad weather driving experience. Does the car pull over and send a message for help - need driver?

Could be a lot of pluses with these systems working correctly.

[Paul_Murphy]

Re: Excellent test roads

And I guess the real world testing will show up those and other items that can't be replicated easily in a test environment.

[ksb1972]

Research In Motion

How poetic :-)

[Wilson! Wilson!]

Jeep hack “doesn’t have anything to do with QNX security"

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/08/qnx-neutrino-os-far-from-the-hack-bbfactcheck-is-setting-the-record-straight-for-seeking-alpha/

Charlie Miller, one of the security researchers who uncovered the vulnerability described in this Fact Check, has publicly confirmed that the vulnerability “doesn’t have anything to do with QNX security”. Case closed.

[Hans 1]

Re: Jeep hack “doesn’t have anything to do with QNX security"

@Wilson!

That link does not really help ... the whole story

>http://seekingalpha.com/article/3413826-blackberry-the-class-action-lawsuit-resulting-from-the-jeep-hack-could-negatively-impact-qnx-sales

>if the UConnect OS was making use of sandboxing, digital signatures, and entitlements, would your hack have been more difficult?

Miller replies "maybe".

The whole point is, the guyz who designed the infotainment system were n00bs when it comes to security ... the system was reachable from anything on the Sprint network, anything ... just get Sprint data plan and you can track all cars ... sandboxing does not really help, here, nor digital signatures, not sure what they mean with entitlements ... the devs here left the barn wide open to anybody passing by, there is only so much an OS can do to prevent damage ... this is akin to having a telnet server accessible from one ISP, no authentication required and, once connected, you are root ... seriously, it was that bad ... blaming QNX is just ridiculous. These devs did not even know you could use authentication (FFS), they would not have used sandboxing even if it had been available ...

I am amazed el'Reg did not get this right ... What's up, have you been bought by Daily Mail, maybe along with !oohaY? (Zat wass a djohk). This is known as "lazy" reporting or maybe my expectations are just too high. Second or third article I read this week ...

[Robert Moore]

I hope they start hiring for this new venture

As a Canadian I would love to see a Canadian company be successful. but mostly for ElReg headlines about RIM Jobs.

[Z30]

Re: I hope they start hiring for this new venture

BlackBerry is now developping a new driverless cars system with Ford.

Known as the market leader in Infotainment and Telematics software, QNX provides a unified operating system and suite of products that help solve the challenges of the fragmented operating system environments found within today's vehicles.

BlackBerry proved to be the best car infotainment manufacturer...

No one else come close.

They are the only one to be adas certified

[John Brown (no body)]

The first vehicle, a 2017 Lincoln,

Eh? It's still 2016. Have they already tested it and reached 88mph?

Where did they get the plutonium from?

[Z30]

Re: The first vehicle, a 2017 Lincoln,

No car manufacturer start thinking manufacturing, on the first of January, a new model. Idi.t