BlackBerry shows new system to make cars brainier

With automakers finding new ways to pack computers into cars, one of the leaders in automotive software has unveiled a way to consolidate them in a way that could mean cool new features for drivers.

BlackBerry, the Canadian company that used to be best known for its smartphones, is showing off a system at the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that can take more than 100 separate computers and put them into a single system.

That single system can then coordinate all the activities of the car's cockpit, whether it is infotainment, the instrument cluster or connectivity, says John Wall, a senior vice president for BlackBerry QNX Software Systems. Eventually, the central system could help with development of self-driving cars as well.

It's a cheaper approach, he says, compared to trying to tie together all those computers, called electronic control modules or ECUs in industry jargon. Further, it allows coordination of all the systems.

"It's a lot easier to share data between the infotainment system and the radio and navigation and the cluster," Wall says. "We can see the cockpit becoming a much more integrated environment."

The single system allows drivers to take information on car's center screen, like a map to a destination, and move it to the instrument cluster space directly in front of the steering wheel. Audi has such a system at present.

Text messages can go there as well, and a system should be able to read the messages to the driver in a way that won't be distracting, Wall says.

"There's more information that can be shared with the user," he says.

At the trade show, the system is being demonstrated on a pair of luxury sedans, a Jaguar XJ and a Lincoln MKZ.