Ottawa’s high-tech cluster hopes to regain some of its former luster by leveraging the region’s deep technological expertise and surging interest from global players to carve out a niche in the rapidly evolving field of autonomous vehicles (AV). The emerging AV cluster in the Ottawa west suburb of Kanata received a major boost last month with an announcement by Blackberry Ltd – at an event attended by prime minister Justin Trudeau - that it was investing $100 million to refocus its Kanata-based QNX division towards AV and establish a Blackberry QNX Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Centre with an emphasis on industry and academic partnerships.