And now it's pushing hard into the car world, because cars are the new smartphones.

From sophisticated infotainment systems to the artificial intelligence enabling autonomous driving, vehicles are looking more and more like computers on wheels. Which means the software—not hardware like engines—is what really sets one car apart from its competitors.

At CES this month, BlackBerry announced its "most advanced and secure embedded software platform for autonomous drive and connected cars." Basically, it wants to provide the computer code for everything from cars driving themselves, to the way that your smartphone hooks up to the touchscreen in the dash.

We met up with the erstwhile phone-makers to see what they're bringing to the auto industry.