DURBAN - Blackberry's has partnered with Baidu, a Chinese internet company, to move into the self-driving cars industry.
Blackberry's attempts to move into driverless cars market has taken a huge leap forward due to the partnership. Baidu and Blackberry will collaborate on automotive software.
Baidu will package Blackberry's QNX vehicle operating system into its Apollo self-driving car platform - a set of tools that car makers use when designing autonomous cars.
The partnership also entails merging Blackberry's more established in-car entertainment software into Apollo.
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Blackberry's QNX unit have been a leaders in building systems to run entertainment and mapping programs in cars for a long time. Now, the Canadian company is attempting to transform that knowledge into building operating systems that can run much more complex and demanding self-driving car software - a huge emerging market.
Blackberry shares rose to 7,8% in New York trading Wednesday and have since increased about 86% in the past 12 year.
Baidu, China's largest search engine provider, has been building the Apollo systems and signing up partners across the world in its attempt to become a globally dominant automotive company.
In September, the Chinese company announced a $1,5 billion fund that will be invested in self-driving car projects over the next three years.
Blackberry also announced on their Facebook page that through a collaboration with DENSO and Intel, they've have released the world's first fully integrated digital cockpit.
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The platform is due to appear in connected car that are produced after 2019. Blackberry believes that their cockpit will set the gold standard for an integrated driving experience that is safe and secure.