BlackBerry shrugged off news Toyota Motors will adopt rival software for its in-car infotainment system platform, with the Canada-headquartered software company defiantly stating its connected car future remained “brighter than ever”.

In a blog post, the company’s COO Marty Beard said BlackBerry’s QNX platform was “not reliant on Toyota business”, and the Japan-based auto maker’s decision would have no impact to future ambitions, as he focussed on BlackBerry’s growing vehicle safety portfolio.

Toyota has used BlackBerry’s software for the past four years as a component of its own Entune system for certain infotainment services.

However, the car manufacturer is set to adopt Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) as its new infotainment system platform in the US for its 2018 Camry model.

AGL is a collaborative effort between more than 100 technology companies and automakers, and the group confirmed last week Toyota will use the open source software in most of its Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in North America.

Beard said while BlackBerry had expected AGL, as well as Linux and Android, to take market share in the automotive infotainment sector, “none of these challenger platforms is close to displacing BlackBerry QNX in safety critical modules”.

The COO said this area was growing even faster than infotainment in the modern software-defined car, and added the company was already winning business with Japanese carmakers and tier-1 suppliers for the safety-focused software.

QNX is used in 60 million cars from more than 40 brands around the world, said BlackBerry, delivering video, mapping, hands free calling and internet services. The company is also looking to develop the platform for autonomous driving.