QNX Re-imagines the Driving Experience with New Technology Concept Car

QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for in-car electronics, today unveiled a technology concept car that demonstrates how the QNX CAR application platform 2.0 is bringing new levels of design flexibility and development speed to the automotive industry.

The concept car, based on a Bentley Continental GT convertible, integrates technologies never before seen in any vehicle, to show how QNX Software Systems is helping its customers build the "connected cockpit" of tomorrow. To create the car, the QNX concept team used the same base platform that QNX offers its automotive customers - a dramatic illustration of how the platform empowers automotive companies to build unique, cutting-edge products.

"From smartphone integration to 3D navigation, our tier one customers are under pressure to deliver market-differentiating features at the speed of mobility," said Derek Kuhn, vice president of sales and marketing, QNX Software Systems. "Consumers have become conditioned by the rapid evolution of mobile devices, and the QNX CAR application platform was expressly designed to help automotive companies address those time-to-market expectations - while maintaining automotive-grade reliability and performance."

The concept car is a testament not only to the flexibility of the QNX CAR application platform 2.0, but to the rich, closely knit ecosystem of technology partners that QNX Software Systems has built over the last decade. Highlights include:

Revolutionary center stack with DLP display from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) - Say goodbye to the conventional flat touchscreen. This immense DLP-enabled display features an organically curved surface, full HD graphics, and TI's optical touch input technology, which allows physical control knobs to be mounted directly on the screen. The result: an ideal balance in physical and touchscreen controls. "Always available" 3D navigation from Elektrobit makes full use of the display, enabling the driver to know where they are at all times. Crank Software's Storyboard Suite was used to develop the dynamic user interface and rich animations.

Natural voice recognition based on AT&T WatsonSM - Just say "Hello Bentley," and the car's voice recognition system immediately starts interacting with you, in a distinctly British accent. No button pushes needed, as the system uses Truly Handsfree keyword spotting technology from Sensory. The system is powered by AT&T Watson speech recognition technology, which enables handsfree control of the media player and navigation system. The AT&T Watson multimodal and multilingual speech engine runs on a cloud-based server to provide high-quality recognition with low latency. The system also uses an intent framework from QNX Software Systems for adapting AT&T Watson to a variety of in-car applications.

Flexible smartphone integration - The Bentley showcases how the QNX CAR application platform enables advanced integration with popular smartphone platforms. For instance, the car can communicate with the user's smartphone to stream music, or to provide notifications of incoming email, news feeds, and other real-time information, displayed in a manner appropriate to the automotive context.

Multimedia system with first in-car implementation of Shazam music discovery service - The infotainment system includes an HTML5 implementation of Pandora Internet radio that is deeply integrated into the media player, as well as the first implementation of the Shazam music discovery service embedded in a car.

Web app for remote monitoring - Simply connect to a web app and keep tabs on the Bentley in real time! The Bentley is cloud-connected and continuously publishes a variety of data about itself (current media track, fluid levels, tire pressure, etc.) that you can view on any device with a browser that supports HTML5 - no app download needed. In the real world, only the driver would have access to this functionality, but the demo is available to everyone to demonstrate the possibilities of cloud access.

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