Operating systems, development tools, and professional services
for connected embedded systems
The QNX CAR Application Platform is a pre-integrated software stack with production-proven QNX technologies and dozens of ecosystem partners. Its reference implementations and reskinable HMI allow development teams to easily create world-class infotainment systems.
QNX CAR pre-integrates QNX products, third-party technologies, and code from the QNX technology incubator as a set of reference implementations. It includes a wide array of QNX technologies: the QNX® Neutrino® RTOS (already deployed in more than 20 million vehicles), a powerful multimedia framework, a best-in-class acoustic processing library, Adobe Flash-based HMI technology, and hundreds of services and utilities — with more being added every day.
QNX CAR Application Platform
QNX CAR implements a wide range of connected applications, from multimedia games to a virtual mechanic that communicates data about key vehicle states.
Modular and connected
Using patented, transparent distributed networking, the QNX CAR Application Platform connects modules and shares resources in the vehicle without any code changes. It connects to a host of portable devices, and to the cloud to provide access to a wealth of internet services.
To keep pace with the frantic schedule of consumer electronics updates, QNX CAR includes modular software building blocks, device connctivity, a software update strategy, and an application store.
QNX CAR has a broad ecosystem with dozens of software partners, many actively participating in the QNX CAR integration process.
Hardware
QNX knows that one processor family does not fit all needs, so we work with all the major silicon vendors to provide solutions that scale from a low-end hands-free system to a high-end multicore system.
Select the "Technology" tab for more detailed information about hardware support.
QNX CAR customers and partners
The QNX CAR program includes participation from over 50 automotive customers and technology partners:
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See also Automotive Ecosystem.
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Chumby
Passengers can access all their favourite infotainment applications – from news feeds through games to web cams.
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Kabillion
Children can keep themselves amused on short and long trips alike with the best in educational games.
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Fanbase
Passengers can keep tabs on their favorite artists from Atlantic Records and connect with other fans through an integrated chat feature.
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Google Local Search
Drivers and passengers can navigate their way to local points of interest that are always up to date.
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Pandora
Drivers and passengers can enjoy Internet streaming radio tailored to their individual tastes.
The LTE Connected Car is a proof of concept built by QNX and Alcatel-Lucent as part of the ng Connect program. Created in under four months, this concept car illustrates how fast and straightforward it is to build an advanced, in-vehicle infotainment system using QNX technology.
Always-on connectivity
The LTE Connected Car demonstrates the value of ultra-high bandwidth, always-on network connectivity through in-car services that were previously unavailable:
- On-demand movies, streamed or downloaded
- Access to personally recorded TV programs via cloud storage
- In-vehicle internet radio and on-demand music stores
- Multi-player online gaming
- Social networking
- Dynamically updateable navigation and location-based services
- GPS augmented by Google Maps’ point-of-interest indicators
More than just a mocked-up demo, this working Toyota Prius uses production-grade QNX software that builds on QNX Software System’s years of extensive automotive experience.
See also:
- LTE Connected Car video with Korean subtitles,
- LTE Connected Car interactive HMI demo,
- the ng Connect program
The QNX CAR Application Platform's business model offers a low-risk path for building compelling, connected products that improve the bottom line. It reduces projects risks, improves the revenue-to-cost balance, and enables rapid development of high quality products.
Reduced project risks
- Quick proof of concepts and prototyping developmen
- Clean IP (intellectual property)
- Visibility into the platform roadmap and innovations
- An open ecosystem philosophy for supplier independence
Reduced costs and new revenues
- Out-off-the-box, pre-integrated reference implementations that are easily productized
- New sources of revenue for OEMs — services, app store
- Reusable software assets
- Scalability — use the same software solution for low-end and high-end systems
- New business model — free software during prototyping, and pre-integrated third-party evaluation software
Compelling products, rapid development
- Early access to leading-edge technologies
- Visually rich HMIs and a customizable environment
- Reliable, responsive user experience
- Support for the latest consumer electronics devices
- Internet connectivity
- Upgradeability — downloadable software updates
Sales and marketing opportunities
Companies who join QNX CAR can participate in joint QNX CAR marketing and sales initiatives, and they can contribute products to the QNX CAR reference implementations. As part of these reference implentations, their products will go out to all QNX CAR automotive tier-one and OEM members — a large and ever-increasing audience.
The QNX CAR Application Platform enablement model reduces the risks and costs inherent to developing and bringing to market advanced software systems for the automotive market.
QNX CAR pre-integrates standard QNX products, third party technologies and code from our technology incubator, then delivers them through a new, simple and low-risk business model.
Companies building prototypes, demos, or proofs-of-concept get access to all the pieces in these implementations for free, including those that are actively being developed through Foundry27, the QNX developer portal and technology incubator.
Reduced project risk
The QNX CAR business model helps reduce the risks inherent to unfunded development. At QNX Software Systems, we understand that tier-one companies must do a lot of unfunded development to win OEM business, and we believe that it makes good business sense to share the risks as well as the rewards. Hence, until a prototype becomes a product, access to QNX CAR is free.
Back-end weighted business model
Just like many of the third-party products in QNX CAR, the QNX product portfolio requires royalty payments for runtime deployments. This payment model serves to align everyone’s interests with a successful product deployment.
Based on the software you want to use, you negotiate royalties with QNX and third-party suppliers. Most importanly, you pay nothing until you have secured the business and started building systems for production.
Please contact us to get more information about pricing.
Development seats
In order to use the technologies and products provided in QNX CAR, you require a valid QNX developer license. If you are not an existing customer, and hence do not have QNX developer license, please contact us to get your QNX Software Development Platform evaluation license.
Reference implementations
The QNX CAR reference implementations provide out-of-the-box, operational systems that significantly reduce the engineering effort required to prototype and productize in-vehicle systems. Automotive suppliers can simply adapt and extend the software to meet the specific needs of an automaker.
These reference implementations provide an integrated solution consisting of standard QNX products, partner technologies and pre-released technologies from the QNX CAR technology incubator. They run on a variety of automotive development platforms.
In addition, QNX CAR members receive QNX BSPs, QNX technology incubator code, access to Foundry27 (the QNX developer forums where engineers and developers share their experience and expertise), and QNX technology:
- QNX Neutrino® RTOS
- QNX Aviage® HMI Suite
- QNX Aviage Multimedia Suite
- QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing
Sample applications
QNX CAR includes numerous sample applications, including YouTube, Google Local Search, Pandora, navigation, vehicle control, speech recognition, games, etc.
Third-party integrations
| QNX CAR comes with a host of third-party integrations. These include source code for a host of features: | |
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Partner integrations
By providing preassembled reference implementations, QNX CAR allows customers to skip first-level integration efforts and to work immediately on product development and differentiation.
| Available now | In development |
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See also: Automotive.
QNX CAR development baord
QNX CAR provides a complete set of pre-integrated technologies pre-loaded onto a development board.
QNX CAR development board
The QNX CAR Application Platform comes pre-loaded onto a development board.
As part of the QNX CAR program, we’ve worked with an initial list of third-party technology providers to create a pre-integrated offering. There are three categories of third parties involved, each with specific licensing considerations.
Sublicensing and redistribution
QNX Software Systems negotiates sublicensing and redistribution rights directly with third-party technology companies so that our customers can get everything they need directly from us.
Evaluation copies
Some third parties participating in the QNX CAR program have enabled QNX Software Systems to provide evaluation copies of their technology as part of QNX CAR.
Our customers do not need to engage with the third party until they have concluded their prototyping and wish to start commercial development for a production-based program, or to redistribute their derivative work for demonstration or commercial sale. At this point, customers will need to work directly with the third parties involved to negotiate whatever sublicensing and redistribution rights they may need.
Other licensing models
Some third parties have licensing models that do not easily fit into the QNX CAR model. Customers will need to engage directly with these companies to secure evaluation and redistribution rights before they begin using their technology.
Additional third-party integrations
The QNX automotive ecosystem includes almost 100 companies with products that work with QNX, but which are not yet part of QNX CAR. We are working with these companies to add more integrated partner products to QNX CAR right out of the box. Until these products are integrated, customers are encouraged continue engaging with these companies directly.
See also Automotive.
QNX CAR membership includes access to a team of QNX engineers specialized in automotive systems.
If at any point you need help, you can call on these engineers to help you design and work through even the toughest problems. For example, they can help you turn the integration phase — frequently glossed over, yet always of unanticipated complexity — into a straightforward and well-defined task.
Foundry 27
Like all QNX Foundry27 projects, QNX CAR comes with community support. All engineers and developers participating in the project try help each other by answering questions posted to the forums.
Commercial support
To address the mix of QNX and third-party products in our technology incubator, we have developed a new service offering designed to help customers in their adoption and deployment of QNX CAR technology.
If you are interested in this commercial support model, please contact us or your local QNX sales representative.
The QNX CAR Application Platform includes a wide array of QNX technologies: the tried and true QNX Neutrino® RTOS, a powerful multimedia framework, HMI technology based on Adobe Flash, a best-in-class acoustic processing library, and hundreds of services and utilities — with more being added every day.
- Tech overview
- Hardware
- Architecture
- Incubator
- HMI
- Infotainment reference
- Virtual mechanic
- Adobe Flash
- Screen shots
The QNX CAR Application Platform provides a reusable software base that can be implemented in a variety of automotive applications. Its software stack includes support that ranges from BSPs for automotive boards right up to sample applications at the HMI layer.
Automotive BSPs
QNX works closely with all industry leading silicon vendors targeting the automotive market to create board support packages for automotive-grade chips.
QNX Neutrino RTOS
The award-winning QNX Neutrino RTOS offers unparalleled reliability and scalability and has been deployed in over 200 vehicle models.
QNX Neutrino services
QNX offers extensive software components above and beyond the RTOS, including connectivity, advanced graphics, high availability, file systems, and networking.
Middleware services
QNX CAR pre-integrates many of the key middleware components (graphics, hands-free, software update, and multimedia) required for today’s automotive projects, saving the engineers from the significant technical challenges in doing so themselves.
Third-party technologies
The QNX ecosystem of third-party companies provides technology components from industry leaders for QNX CAR reference implementations.
HMI layer
QNX CAR offers a complete HMI solution with sample applications for a media player, phone, contacts, picture viewer, weather, and more. These applications use the expressive power of Adobe Flash for smooth screen transitions and animations.
To make getting started with the QNX CAR Application Plaform simple and quick, we will ship to qualified QNX CAR members a loaner development board pre-loaded with a reference software implementation.
There is no cost to the member for this hardware. We lend it for as long as it is required for internal evaluation and prototyping, and for external demonstrations.
Currently available images
QNX CAR runs on ARM, SH-4, x86 and Power PC architectures. Pre-built images are currently available for:
- Freescale i.MX35
- Freescale i.MX51
- Intel Atom
- Texas Instruments OMAP 3530
Upcoming availability
QNX Software Systems intends to expand QNX CAR board support as needed, and we can make QNX CAR available for any other QNX automotive BSP.
To enquire about support on other platforms, please contact us.
The QNX CAR software architecture addresses everything from hardware support (BSPs) to human machine interface technology, and is used by both the infotainment and instrument cluster reference implementations. A high level view of the software architecture is shown below.
QNX automotive software stack
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QNX CAR building blocks
The key QNX CAR building blocks come from the QNX Software Systems middleware and OS product families, as well as the QNX automotive ecosystem.
QNX Aviage Multimedia Suite
The QNX Aviage® Multimedia Suite is a fully customizable platform for building high-value digital infotainment solutions that range from simple multimedia players to multi-console media networks with sharable media.
QNX Aviage HMI Suite
The QNX Aviage HMI Suite enables compelling user interfaces with rich, web-enabled applications and eye-catching visual effects.
QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing Suite
The QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing Suite is a modular library of field-proven algorithms that improve the clarity, quality, and accuracy of voice communication.
Automotive ecosystem
Comprising over 90 companies, the QNX automotive ecosystem offers virtually all technologies needed for today’s automotive programs.
QNX Neutrino RTOS
The QNX Neutrino RTOS is a full-featured and reliable OS designed and built to meet the constrained resource requirements of embedded systems.
QNX Momentics Tool Suite
The QNX Momentics® Tool Suite is a comprehensive, Eclipse-based IDE with innovative profiling tools, and a large ecosystem of third-party tools.
QNX CAR members have access to our technology incubator where our engineers are developing software that will find its way into QNX products. This technology incubator forms part of the QNX CAR project hosted on Foundry 27.
The purpose is to provide as much software as possible in source form, so that developers can easily adapt it to meet automakers' and tier-one suppliers' needs.
The HMI framework is the foundation for the QNX CAR application store technology. It provides all the underlying functionality required to readily turn Flash code into full-fledged, integrated applications with a consistent look and feel.
QNX CAR HMI screen shot
The QNX CAR Application Platform enables rapid re-skinning of a feature-rich HMI.
Capabilities
The HMI framework offers ActionScript extensions for direct access to native C code, an application launcher, and window management.
- Composition manager for building complex delays
- Application launcher
- Window manager
- Access to native C code
- Dynamic handling of day/night changes and localization changes
- New themes and skinning support
- Automatic application installation and removal
- Persistent application state management
- Service/URL registration and lookup
- User view of system applications
- System-wide support of indicators and notification messages
- User customizable favorites bar
- Icon badging
The QNX CAR infotainment reference implementation offers a full range of in-vehicle information and entertainment capabilities.
QNX CAR skinnable infotainment reference
The main screen of the infotainment reference can be easily reskinned to reinforce branding with graphics, logos, and overall look-and-feel.
Features
- Rich, compelling user interface that can be easily re-skinned to incorporate the automaker’s look and feel
- Complete media functionality with:
- Apple iPod Out, Nokia Terminal Mode, Pandora Link
- Audio and compressed audio playback from CD and USB
- Intuitive volume, balance and fade control
- Video playback including DVD video and MPEG4/H.264
- Internet enabled applications such as weather, YouTube, and Yahoo Maps
- Games
- Dynamic software update capability
- Climate control user interface
- Customizable screen layout that can be personalized by the driver or passengers
- Handsfree integration with mobile phones
For information about the latest infotainment features, see the QNX CAR roadmap on Foundry27.
QNX CAR boasts a virtual mechanic application that lets drivers immediately see problems with their vehicles.
Virtual mechanic system overview
The virtual mechanic lets drivers see all vehicle system notifications at a glance.
OBD-II trouble code display
The QNX CAR virtual mechanic retrieves OBD-II trouble codes from the vehicle CAN bus and displays them in an interactive graphic of the vehicle. A tap on the display zooms in to show areas of concern, and the closest service station or dealership where help is available.
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Skinnable infotainment reference
The main screen of the infotainment reference can be reskinned easily, showing your own graphics, logos, and look-and-feel.
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Pandora Internet radio
QNX CAR can take full advantage of an Internet connection by streaming audio through a Pandora Internet radio station, providing all the Pandora features like ranking songs, creating new stations, and showing song history.
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YouTube video player
QNX CAR can stream YouTube videos while connected; this includes the ability to see most viewed, recent, bookmarks, or search for your favorite videos.
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Music playback
The infotainment reference has music playback with full album art support.
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Google local search
OEMs and tier one suppliers can easily customize POI categories.
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Intuitive climate controls
Provided with the infotainment reference is a graphical and intuitive means of setting climate controls.
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User personalization
Built-in to the HMI framework are user personalized favorites, colors, and themes – selectable by key fob, mobile device, or touch screen.
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Application store technology
This out-of-the box, integrated solution is the first of its kind for the automotive market.
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Intuitive audio controls
The infotainment reference has a very intuitive single-finger control of balance and fade.
QNX CAR creates a new set of business opportunities for Adobe Flash developers and content companies that develop applications for in-car systems. Because its underlying HMI framework is based on Adobe Flash technology, it supports any native Flash application.
Drop and run approach
Several companies have already taken advantage of this "drop and run" approach to porting their applications to the vehicle, including:
- Atlantic Records
- Kabillion
- Pandora
- Chumby Industries
- TuneWiki
These and many other companies have also benefitted from the HMI framework’s skinning support, which allows developers to reskin applications without programming. This capability is ideal for delivering applications to multiple customers.
Support for different graphics technologies
The QNX CAR unified graphics architecture seamlessly merges different graphics environments. Flash developers can easily create HMIs that include 2D and 3D graphics along with OpenGL ES and other graphics environments.