(Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Blackberry's autonomous research center.Reuters/Blair Gable)
Blackberry has had quite the fall from grace.
What was once the world's biggest smartphone maker is now out of the phone manufacturing business altogether. Since 2009, its market share has fallen from 20% to just .1%.
But Blackberry is looking to stage a comeback, just not with smartphones. Blackberry has been quietly ramping up its self-driving car software efforts to compete with the likes of Apple down the line.
Before you completely dismiss the old handset maker, it's worth remembering that Blackberry owns the QNX Operating System. That's the operating system Ford's Sync 3 infotainment system runs on, as well as General Motors' new OnStar system and the Audi TT virtual cockpit. It also supports Apple's CarPlay.
Blackberry QNX is running in more than 60 million vehicles as of the end of 2014, with over 40 automakers relying on the software platform, Grant Courville, senior director of product management at QNX, told Business Insider.
Colin Bird, senior analyst of automotive technology at IHS Markit, told Business Insider that Blackberry QNX is currently the leader in the connected car space, which includes infotainment, navigation, telematics, and rear-seat entertainment. QNX has a market share of about 47% and its closest competitor is Linux with 20% market share.
Blackberry is now modifying its QNX platform so it can run self-driving car tech as well.
The idea is to give automakers a secure platform to run their self-driving car software. Since self-driving cars are still in their early days, many automakers are running the software on massive computers sitting in car trunks.