The news in the last couple of weeks indicates that regardless of where Apple is on the secret car project called ‘Project Titan,’ plans have been trimmed significantly. However, Apple definitely has been making a number of moves in the business surrounding cars, and that includes hiring from BlackBerry subsidiary QNX Software.
After a scoop on the Apple car plans from Bloomberg last week, BlackBerry put out a post correcting several ‘facts’ from the article, as well as reinforcing the strength of QNX as a real-time automotive software system.
In the post, BlackBerry clarifies a few facts, including the fact that former QNX CEO Dan Dodge was not ‘poached’ from QNX, but instead retired and was subsequently hired by Apple. The post also refutes the fact that a former QNX manager, Derrick Keefe, was actually a senior engineer who had been at the company for 10 years. Finally, while QNX admits that 24 former QNX employees have left the company to go to Apple in recent years, few had direct automotive experience, and only three were QNX kernel engineers.
All of this suggests that while Apple is definitely interested in real-time operating systems, which QNX specializes in, not all the evidence points to exclusive work on a car project. The also reinforces that QNX’s work in the automotive industry will continue in earnest and that many companies rely on QNX technology for their car businesses.
The post doesn’t deny that Apple is setting up an office in Ottawa as reported, and we can say with some confidence that “Canada is, in fact, pretty great!”
[source]Inside BlackBerry[/source]
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