QNX Automotive Technology System - Major Sub-Types of QNX Innovation Product - Case Study Example

QNX AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Table of Contents QNX Automotive Technology System Introduction The innovative idea behind the new Automotive Technology System by QNX would help transform the vehicle mirrors into cameras displaying improved view of the area where the automobile is heading. To make self-driving as well as connected vehicles a reality, QNX Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre (AVIC) was launched. For many years BlackBerry QNX have supplied embedded software to the automakers for more than a decade, and its systems have been installed in over 60 million vehicles. QNX innovative ability has enabled the company to install various technologies in vehicles such as Certicom security technology that facilitate communication authorization as well as authentication. Innovation has made the company develop products that facilitate the realisation of affordable self-driving cars that would enormously reduce parking and traffic costs, pollution emissions, and accidents (Spena et al., 2015). The aim of this paper is to discuss the major sub-types of QNX’s automotive technology system, the innovation’s crucial milestones, how it has affected organisations management approach and its future developments. Major Sub-Types of QNX Innovation Product Given that global market has become increasingly competitive, Hana (2013) posit that organisations have been forced to win new customers and defeat competition through innovative practices. Creative employees are considered to be crucial in developing innovations since their knowledge, personal creativity, abilities, and skills make it possible for the organisation to generate inventive ideas that would lead to a competitive advantage. According to Tohidi and Jabbari (2012), innovation process is the key to success for nearly all organizations since innovation process results in improved productivity and competitive advantage (see appendix one). The subsystems of QNX’s automotive technology system are Connected Vehicle and Autonomous Vehicle (CVAV) systems as well as the advance driver assistance systems (ADAS) technology. These subsystems are some of the ADAS automotive technologies that have been researched heavily. Connected vehicles can be described as the vehicles which utilise various communication technologies with the aim of facilitating communication between the driver, roadside infrastructure and other vehicles on the road. This subsystem can be utilised not just to improve the vehicle safety, but also the commute times and efficiency. On the other hand, the self-driving vehicles are those operating with no direct input of the driver to control the braking, acceleration, and steering, acceleration. They are designed purposely to eliminate the need for drivers to monitor the roadway constantly while they are using in self-driving mode. According to Akhlaq et al. (2012) ADAS improve safety and facilitate smooth driving through by monitoring the roadway. They are normally useful on the highway and other busy roads, where drivers are expected to monitor their cruise control systems regularly for safety-related reasons. These subsystems will enable the car to speed up or slow down automatically based on the actions of drivers ahead of it. For more than two decades, BlackBerry QNX has been relying on innovation to supply software platforms to the automobile companies, and currently the leading supplier of instrument cluster systems, infotainment, telematics, as well as coustics. Therefore, ADAS and CVAV systems are the most recent innovative project by QNX that would take the automobile industry to a whole new level. Given that the world has evolved from connected vehicles to automated as well as autonomous driving, the QNX’s automotive technology system will reduce the number of electronic control units distributed all through the vehicle to a few domain controllers (see appendix two). This transition, according to Maddox (2016) would be supported by BlackBerry QNX’s flexible foundational technology platform based on its secure and safety-certified operating system and hypervisor. Most Important Milestones for This Innovation  QNX has made enormous progress in automotive software systems, and it is currently world’s leading developer of automotive software, particularly for infotainment. QNX have shown clear intention of becoming the first company to equip cars with the emerging infotainment features. As pointed out by Bla1ze (2015), the automotive industry is evolving continuously; therefore, QNX has continually supplied software for improved flexibility, reliability, and performance that enable automakers to manufacture differentiated products. The company has powered more than 60 million cars with automated systems, and this is a huge milestone. According to Rosenzweig and Bartl (2015), the ADAS systems create the basis for the future automated driving and the trend toward automated driving has achieved some milestones and also some technical challenges. Still, autonomous driving has achieved some main milestones since it came about some decades ago (see appendix three). Communications between vehicles and road infrastructure were initiated by 1990s, but since then, sophisticated functions for car automation have been integrated into dashboards, with GPS functionalities. Such technologies have led to the development of ADAS and CVAV systems. As mentioned by Coppola and Morisio (2016), communication has thus far been enabled between the Internet and the vehicles, with the aim of accessing different data sources as well as offering advanced infotainment and multimedia services. How QNX Innovation Has Affected Organisation’s Management Approach Although QNX has established an Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre (AVIC) to facilitate the production of autonomous vehicles, the incremental costs associated with this innovation still remains uncertain. The company management would need various special controls, computers, as well as sensors which are exceedingly expensive even if the vehicles would be produced in mass production. As mentioned by Litman (2015), since system failures in automated vehicles could be fatal not just to the occupants of the vehicle but also other road users. Therefore, QNX would have to meet the high standards of production, installation, and testing to reduce the likelihood of system failure. The end product could be exceedingly expensive since the self-driving vehicle operation could need special mapping and navigation service subscriptions. The QNX management is looking for ways to recover development costs devoid of making the end product exceedingly expensive or compromising the quality. Still, there is no way the company would be able to provide self-driving capability without the customers incurring additional cost to the purchase prices of the vehicle. Besides that, the management is implementing this innovation more slowly as compared to other changes in technology because of their slow fleet turnover, high costs, as well as inflexible safety requirements. According to van der Heijden and Marchau (2005), the distinction in research and development speed as well as the market introduction of the autonomous vehicles is associated with the challenge of determining whether such systems could be based solely on in-car technology or would need support from infrastructure systems or other vehicles. Developing a sole in-vehicle ADAS appears to be challenging issue for the organisation. Another issue facing the management is the issue of the technology reliability, especially on how the system performs during disturbances, such as bad sensing because of degraded and temporary conditions, insufficient capacity of data processing, and electromagnetic interferences. The management must put much effort to solve such issues in order to meet the strict safety requirements and allow for ADAS introduction to the market. Besides that, Brookhuis et al. (2001) companies management has been forced to handle the issue of customer acceptance, since not all people are prepared to hand over the control of their car to an automated system. Bitar (2003) observed that innovation process needs a total support from the management; that is to say, managers have to clearly understand their firm’s capabilities and how to allocate investments in continuously delivering new products/services to the new customers as well as their existing customers. Therefore, QNX managers are the main drivers of the firm’s automotive innovative capacity. The QNX success is attributed to the company’s good corporate governance mechanisms that promote innovation and collaboration. However, the company’s management will experience challenges in managing customer information they will be gathering due to the risk of a data breach (Coppola & Morisio, 2016). Future Developments One future development is the radical and economic development of new ADAS technology owing to the acceleration of technological innovation, especially the connectivity quality. In this case, vehicle occupants would be able to stream data in real time from the cloud. Furthermore, the computing speeds needed for steering a self-driving vehicle as well as the operation of artificial intelligence would improve tremendously. Connected vehicles would be developed to include robo-taxis and low-cost 3D-printed buses. Another future development is that new mobility concepts would change since the interests and tastes of potential customers would experience a significant shift. The majority of urban residents would start losing interest to own their own vehicles since ride-sharing applications, and public transport would fulfil their needs easily. Furthermore, buyers would be expecting highly sophisticated connectivity levels of in the vehicles they will be purchasing. The last possible future development is that people would steadily move toward autonomous technology since the self-driving car would become the main contributor to automakers’ productivity and profits. The self-driving cars would be needed to eliminate the need for drivers to monitor the roadway constantly, especially after a long day at work. Conclusion In conclusion, this piece has discussed the major sub-types of QNX’s automotive technology system, the innovation’s crucial milestones, how it has affected organisations management approach and its future developments. As mentioned in the essay, According to Litman (2015), ADAS vehicles would offer improved safety, user convenience, fuel savings, congestion reductions, as well as reduce pollution. Both ADAS and CVAV systems would help reduce accidents since the human factor impact is enormously reduced; in so doing, they contribute to long term road fatalities reduction. The QNX’s ADAS and CVAV would help make vehicles ubiquitous and virtually connected. References Akhlaq, M., Sheltami, T.R., Helgeson, B. & Shakshuki, E.M., 2012. Designing an integrated driver assistance system using image sensors. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, vol. 23, no. 6, pp.2109–32. Bitar, J., 2003. The Impacts of Innovation on Strategy Management: Strategy in Turbulent Environment. Management Strategique International, vol. 1, pp.23-45. Bla1ze, 2015. QNX achieves new milestone in automotive market - 50 million vehicles and counting! [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://crackberry.com/qnx-achieves-new-milestone-automotive-market-now-50-million-vehicles-and-counting" http://crackberry.com/qnx-achieves-new-milestone-automotive-market-now-50-million-vehicles-and-counting [Accessed 2 April 2017]. Brookhuis, K.A., Waard, D.d. & Janssen, W.H., 2001. Behavioural impacts of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems–an overview. EJTIR, vol. 1, no. 3, pp.245 - 253. Coppola, R. & Morisio, M., 2016. Connected Car: Technologies, Issues, Future Trends. ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 49, no. 3, pp.1-36. Hana, U., 2013. Competitive Advantage Achievement through Innovation and Knowledge. Journal of Competitiveness, vol. 5, no. 1, pp.82-96. Litman, T., 2015. Autonomous Vehicle Implementation Predictions: Implications for Transport Planning. In Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C. , 2015. Maddox, T., 2016. BlackBerry QNX shifting gears with new autonomous vehicle innovation center in Canada. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.techrepublic.com/article/blackberry-qnx-shifting-gears-with-new-autonomous-vehicle-innovation-center-in-canada/" http://www.techrepublic.com/article/blackberry-qnx-shifting-gears-with-new-autonomous-vehicle-innovation-center-in-canada/ [Accessed 2 April 2017]. Rosenzweig, J. & Bartl, M., 2015. Review and Analysis of Literature on Autonomous Driving. The Making-of Innovation, pp.1-57. Spena, M.R., Timpone, F. & Farroni, F., 2015. Virtual Testing of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems. International Journal of Mechanics, vol. 9, pp.300-08. Tohidi, H. & Jabbari, M.M., 2012. The important of Innovation and its Crucial Role in Growth, Survival and Success of Organizations. Procedia Technology, vol. 1, pp.535 – 538. van der Heijden, R.E.C.M. & Marchau, V.A.W.J., 2005. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: Behavioural implications of some recent developments. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, vol. 5, no. 4, pp.239-52. Appendices Appendix One: Innovation Process Appendix Tow: QNX ADAS Features Appendix Three: Automotive Millstones Read More