Plus has selected BlackBerry Limited’s QNX technology for the global commercial deployment of its automated driving system for Class 8 trucks.

Plus is the first automated truck developer to use BlackBerry QNX technology for its next-generation self-driving systems. The systems are expected to be commercialized and deployed beginning in 2021 by Plus and FAW, which is China’s largest heavy-duty truck maker. In the next two years, Plus also plans to deploy thousands of intelligent, automated trucks in the US.

“Self-driving systems consist of the most complex and powerful software and hardware to go into a Class 8 truck. Every technology choice we make has to contribute to the overall safety and security of heavy-duty trucks integrated with the Plus automated driving system. The operating system is an important foundation for the rest of the system,” explains Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder, Plus.

“Our engineering team has done an exceptional job in completing the transition to the industry’s highest standard of safety-certified technology as we move from product development to commercial deployment.”

BlackBerry will license its ISO 26262 ASIL-D safety-certified QNX OS for Safety software solution to Plus as part of the agreement. This licensing will further strengthen the technology foundation the company has built to create a safe and secure automated driving system.

QNX OS for Safety is based on the QNX Neutrino Real-time Operating System (RTOS). Embedded software developers around the world use QNX OS for Safety for mission-critical systems in medical devices, industrial controls, rail, robotics and aerospace and defense.

The foundation for functionalities of a self-driving truck, a certified automotive operating system helps manage the autonomous system data flow from sensors to prediction technology and finally to the actuation that controls the movement.

According to Plus, optimizing this data flow can also help to speed up the image processing, machine learning and other algorithms that are needed for the automated driving system to work. Plus says that it will be able to work more quickly with its OEM and fleet partners to continue the commercial rollout of its automated driving system thanks to the transition to the safety-certified QNX OS for Safety, along with other enterprise technology that the company has adopted.