隐藏在汽车方向盘背后的技术巨擘

    去年1月，在拉斯维加斯举办的消费电子展上，一辆纯黑色的敞篷宾利停在展台上，华美逼人。这一周的大多数时间里，当成千上万的车迷穿过拉斯维加斯会议中心的北厅时，这辆宾利——起价191,000美元的敞篷欧陆GTC——无疑是众人瞩目的焦点。不过，吸引众人的并不是它那流线型的外观，而是它那充满未来感的仪表板。这个仪表板由位于渥太华的软件公司QNX开发，拥有3D地图和倒车雷达影像，以及预触控（pre-touch）技术——每当用户的手接近那块巨大的17英寸屏幕，屏幕就会自动激活。它甚至还按宾利的要求提供了视频会议功能（当然只有停车时才能用这项功能）。

    十多年来，QNX——也就是为黑莓（BlackBerry）手机开发全新操作系统黑莓10的这家QNX——一直在为汽车业开发定制软件。如果问问业内分析师，QNX的口碑如何？听到的都是“坚如磐石”，“绝不会崩溃的解决方案”这类溢美之词，很适合想象高速行驶时行车电脑一旦出故障可能会出现的情形（2003年，QNX的一位客户在接受采访时对《财富》杂志打了个玩笑式的比方：“唯一能让他们的软件失灵的办法就是对着行车电脑来上一枪。”）QNX的销售和营销副总裁德里克•库恩称，QNX凭借自己的好名声很早就拿下了所谓的信息娱乐市场的一大块份额，2011年出货量就已经达到了900万套，占此类设备总销量的60%。奥迪（Audi），丰田（Toyota ），宝马（BMW），保时捷（Porsche），本田（Honda ）和路虎（Land Rover）全都搭载了QNX的系统，而库恩估计，目前全球搭载QNX软件的汽车有“几千万辆”。来自信息咨询公司IHS的一份行业报告称，2013年信息娱乐系统的销售收入将达到67亿美元。

    互联设备，无论是冰箱也好，还是洗衣机也好，都来自于更出色的技术，以及消费者建立如智能手机一样的“始终联接”的愿望。QNX的汽车产品营销经理安迪•格瑞克称，互联汽车——想象一下内置了GPS、蓝牙和Wi-Fi的车——可能正是最可行的集多种系统于一身的产物。长途交通，以及对手机免提使用和GPS的需求，使汽车成为信息娱乐设备最好的试验田。高德纳公司（Gartner）的分析师蒂洛•科斯洛夫斯基的解释是：“汽车就是终极移动设备。”升级的技术和用户更高的期望也正促使汽车厂商将信息娱乐设备——主要是带触屏的仪表板——纳入到标配车型上。科斯洛夫斯基预计，到2020年，80%的新车都将装备内置信息娱乐设备，比目前的40%大幅上升。

    想当初，1980年QNX刚成立时，很难想象它将很快在汽车业大展拳脚。公司起步阶段，联合创始人丹•道奇和高登•贝尔勉强做到了财务平衡，考虑到他们并未去拿风投，能做到这一点已属难能可贵。这对创业兄弟当时每天工作20个小时。担任首席执行官的道奇当时已58岁，靠自己的太太上班支援；而2004年退休的首席运营官贝尔早年为了省钱，干脆一直住在父母家里。最初QNX的系统是为PC设计的，但20世纪90年代后期，随着它不断升级，这套软件的灵活性使公司的业务重心开始慢慢转向其他商机。这个出乎意料的转型及它在众多工业领域和消费品上的成功应用使QNX得以与当时专注于PC软件开发的公司如微软公司（Microsoft）和IBM公司区分开来。QNX的应用领域很广，核电站、医院和赌场只是其中一些领域而已。2009年，QNX软件还被用于一个由瑞士发起的名为“太阳脉冲”（Solar Impulse）的项目，旨在打造太阳能驱动的飞机。

    Under the bright lights of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January, a stunning black Bentley sat with the top down on the showroom floor. The Bentley -- a Continental GTC convertible starting at $191,000 -- became the center of attention throughout most of the week as thousands of geeks filed through the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall. But it was not for its curvaceous sheet metal that attracted them but its futuristic dashboard inside. Developed by Ottawa-based software company QNX, this dashboard boasted 3-D maps and reverse cameras, pre-touch technology that kicks the massive 17-inch screen to life as a hand approaches, and even, per Bentley's request: video conferencing (only functional when the car is in park, of course).

    For more than a decade, QNX -- the same QNX that makes BlackBerry's (BBRY) new mobile operating system known as BlackBerry 10 -- has developed software specifically tailored toward the auto industry. Ask analysts what reputation QNX carries, and you'll get phrases like "rock solid" or "a solution for things that can't crash," fitting considering the potential consequences of a computer failure while traveling at freeway speeds. (In a 2003 interview, one QNX customer jokingly told Fortune, "The only way to make this software malfunction is to fire a bullet into the computer running it.") QNX has wielded this reputation to carve out an early hold on the so-called infotainment market share, shipping more than 9 million units in 2011, over 60% of all such units sold, according to Derek Kuhn, vice president of sales and marketing. Audi, Toyota (TM), BMW, Porsche, Honda (HMC), Land Rover -- QNX has been in them all, and Kuhn estimates QNX software currently operates in "tens of millions" of cars around the globe. An automotive industry report from IHS pegs infotainment revenues at $6.7 billion for 2013.

    Connected devices, from refrigerators to washing machines, have stemmed from better technology and a consumer-base eager to build on the "always connected" smartphone experience. Connected cars -- think built-in GPS, blue-tooth, and Wi-Fi -- may just be the most practical of the bunch, says Andy Gryc, QNX's automotive product marketing manager. Long commutes, coupled with a need for hands-free cell use and GPS, make the car prime real estate for hosting an infotainment unit. "The automobile," explains Gartner analyst Thilo Koslowski, "is the ultimate mobile device." Better technology and heightened user expectations are driving automakers to incorporate infotainment units -- essentially touchscreen dashboards -- into their standard models, too. By 2020 some 80% of new vehicles are expected to have built-in infotainment units, up from just 40% currently, predicts Koslowski.

    The significant role QNX may soon play in the auto industry would have been hard to predict at the time of the company's founding in 1980. For starters, co-founders Dan Dodge and Gordon Bell barely survived financially, a task made all the more difficult considering they didn't take venture capital funding. The duo routinely worked 20-hour days, and CEO Dodge, 58, was supported by his working wife; Bell, the COO who retired in 2004, lived with his parents during the company's early days in order to save money. QNX was originally designed for use in PCs, but as its operating system evolved in the late '90s, the software's flexibility slowly transitioned the company's focus toward other opportunities. This unintentional shift and successful deployment in so many industrial and consumer products helped differentiate QNX from other PC companies of the time like Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM). Nuclear power plants, hospitals, and casinos are just a few of the areas QNX software can be found. In 2009, QNX software was part of a Switzerland-based effort known as Solar Impulse that created a solar-powered airplane.