Nexus SDV: Google Cloud’s Open-Source AI Platform for Software-Defined Vehicles

The automotive industry is shifting gears into the age of the software-defined vehicle (SDV), where cars are more like smartphones on wheels. Google Cloud and Valtech have teamed up to launch Nexus SDV, an open-source, AI-powered platform built on Google Cloud that can manage up to 100 million devices. It’s designed to turn raw telemetry into real-time insights, making vehicles proactive partners rather than passive data sources.

AI-Driven Experiences with Nexus SDV

Nexus AI, powered by Gemini models, acts as the intelligent engine that transforms vehicles into agentic partners. It analyzes complex telemetry in real-time to enable autonomous decision-making and hyper-personalized driver assistance. The platform also focuses on reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by using Arm-based compute and Bigtable-optimized storage, so manufacturers can scale without breaking the bank.

Cloud-Native Under the Hood

Nexus SDV is built on a modular, cloud-native architecture that bridges the vehicle edge and the data center. Deep integration with Android Automotive OS (AAOS) ensures high-fidelity telemetry is ingested and synchronized in real-time, allowing Nexus AI to push intelligent updates back to the vehicle. This developer-friendly, open framework lets manufacturers manage the entire SDV lifecycle with Google Cloud’s scalability.

Defense in Depth with Google Cloud Security

Security is baked into Nexus SDV with a comprehensive, defense-in-depth model. Key elements include:

• Mutual TLS and PKI: Cryptographic trust chains authenticate vehicles before data exchange, using Google Cloud Certificate Authority Service.
• Identity and Access Management: Keycloak provides OIDC-based authentication, with fine-grained access control via NATS Auth Callout and Workload Identity Federation.
• Secret Management: Secrets are generated dynamically and stored in Google Cloud Secret Manager, never baked into code.
• Network Isolation: Private GKE clusters with no public IPs, and Cloud SQL IAM Authentication for database access.
• Secure AI Framework: Based on Google’s SAIF, with built-in explainability, safety controls, and model governance.
• Data API: A secure abstraction layer that restricts direct access to Bigtable, enforcing structured data access patterns.

Nexus SDV is now available as an open-source core on GitHub. It’s a game-changer for manufacturers looking to build secure, AI-native SDVs without the usual cloud costs. For more details, check out the Nexus SDV site.

Original announcement published on Google Cloud.