Jaguar Land Rover and BlackBerry to collaborate on technical architecture

Jaguar Land Rover and Canadian tech giant BlackBerry will work together to develop a new software architecture for the automaker's next-generation vehicles.

The technology company said Thursday it would license its QNX operating system and assign a team of its own engineers to JLR to build a new computing structure. The first phase of the partnership will be developing the automaker's next-generation infotainment system.

"Connected and autonomous vehicles will react and drive based on rich data," said John Wall, general manager of BlackBerry QNX, in a statement. "Automakers, such as Jaguar Land Rover, are realizing they need to take an active role in defining the software architecture for their vehicles."

To efficiently handle high-powered connected and autonomous technologies, automakers are working to consolidate the control unit structure within vehicles. This evolution is projected to take at least one product generation of development as well as technology-focused partnerships such as the latest between JLR and BlackBerry.

In January, JLR said it also would be working with Qualcomm on its next-generation infotainment system, using the chipmaker's processing technology for its infotainment and digital clusters.