Justin Trudeau to announce $40M backing for BlackBerry's self-driving car technology

The federal government is to give $40 million to BlackBerry to help the company with its development of self-driving car technology.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata on Friday to announce the financial backing.

One-time smartphone leader BlackBerry is now working on advanced software for autonomous vehicles.

BlackBerry said its QNX software is already in tens of millions of cars, guiding systems related to driver assistance, hands-free features and entertainment consoles.

A government official said the federal money, to come from the Strategic Innovation Fund, will go toward software development and skills training for workers.

The company is putting $300 million of its own money into the initiative, expected to create 800 jobs over the next decade at BlackBerry’s Kanata campus as well as support 300 existing jobs there.

With files from the Canadian Press