Question: Can you think of ways in which Cloud Spanner technology would benefit the autonomous vehicle industry.

Please write in a paragraph format.

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Cloud Spanner, Google's Global Database MIS Systems that encompass hundreds of thousands of computers and multiple data centers must precisely synchronize time around the world. These systems involve communication among computers in many locations, and time varies from computer to computer because precise time is difficult to keep. Services such as the Network Time Protocol aimed to provide computers with a common time reference point. However, this protocol worked only so well, primarily because computer network transmission speeds are relatively slow compared to the processing speeds of the computers themselves. In fact, before Google developed Spanner, companies found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to keep databases consistent without constant, intense communication. Conducting this type of communication around the world took too much time. For Google, the problem of time was critical. The firm's databases operate in data centers that are dispersed throughout the world. Therefore, Google could not ensure that transactions in one part of the world matched transactions in another part. That is, Google could not obtain a truly global picture of its operations. The firm could not seamlessly replicate data across regions or quickly retrieve replicated data when they were needed. Google's engineers had to find a way to produce reliable time across the world. To resolve this problem, Google developed the Cloud Spanner, which is the firm's globally distributed NewSQL database. Spanner stores data across millions of computers located in data centers on multiple continents. Even though Spanner stretches around the world, the database functions as if it is in one place. NewSQL is a class of modern relational database management system that attempts to provide the same scalable performance of NoSQL systems for online transaction processing (OLTP) functions while still maintaining the ACID guarantees of a traditional database system. The ACID guarantees include the following: - Atomicity: Each transaction is all or nothing. If one part of the transaction fails, then the entire transaction fails, and the database is left unchanged. - Consistency: Any transaction will bring the database from one valid state to another. - Isolation: The concurrent execution of transactions results in a system state that would be obtained if transactions were executed sequentially (one after another). - Durability: Once a transaction has been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of power loss, system crashes, or errors. Cloud Spanner offers companies the best of both traditional relational databases and NoSQL databases-that is, transactional consistency with easy scalability. However, Spanner is not a simple scale-up relational database service: Cloud SQL is that Google product. Spanner is not a data warehouse: BigQuery is that Google product. Finally, Spanner is not a NoSQL database: BigTable is that Google product. Google can change company data in one part of Spanner-for example, running an ad or debiting an advertiser's account-without contradicting changes made on the other side of the planet. In addition, Spanner can readily and reliably replicate data across multiple data centers in multiple parts of the world, and it can seamlessly retrieve these copies if any individual data center goes down. In essence, Spanner provides Google with consistency across continents. So, how did Google solve the time problem by creating Spanner? Google engineers equipped Google's data centers with global positioning system (GPS; see Chapter 8 ) receivers and atomic clocks. The GPS receivers obtain the time from various satellites orbiting the earth, while the atomic clocks keep their own, highly accurate, time. The GPS devices and atomic clocks send their time readings to master servers in each data center. These servers trade readings in an effort to settle on a common tim A margin of error still exists. However, because there are so many time readings, the master servers become a far more reliable timekeeping service. Google calls this timekeeping technology TrueTime. With help from TrueTime, Spanner provides Google with a competitive advantage in its diverse markets. TrueTime is an underlying technology for AdWords and Gmail as well as more than 2,000 other Google services, including Google Photos and the Google Play store. Google can now manage online transactions at an unprecedented scale. Furthermore, thanks to Spanner's extreme form of data replication, Google now keeps its services operational with unprecedented consistency. Google hopes to convince customers that Spanner provides an easier way of running a global business and of replicating their data across multiple regions, thereby guarding against outages. The problem is that few businesses are truly global on the same scale as Google. However, Google is betting that Spanner will give customers the freedom to expand as time goes on. One such customer is JDA (www.jda.com), a company that helps businesses oversee their supply chains. JDA is testing Spanner because the volume and velocity of the firm's data are increasing exponentially. Spanner could also be useful in the financial markets by enabling large-scale banks to more efficiently track and synchronize trades occurring around the world. Traditionally, many banks have been cautious about managing trades in the cloud for security and privacy reasons. However, some banks are now investigating Spanner. Google is offering Spanner technology to all customers as a cloud computing service. Google believes that Spanner can create a competitive advantage in its battle with Microsoft and Amazon for supremacy in the cloud computing marketplace. Sources: Compiled from A. Penkava, "Google Cloud Spanner: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Lightspeed, March 21, 2018; A. Cobley, "Get Tooled up before Grappling with Google's Spanner Database, "The Register, March 12, 2018; T. Baer, "Making the Jump to Google Cloud Spanner," ZDNet, February 22, 2018; A. Brust, "Google's Cloud Spanner: How Does It Stack Up?" ZDNet, July 7, 2017; F. Lardinois, "Google's Globally Distributed Cloud Spanner Database Service Is Now Generally Available," TechCrunch, May 16, 2017; S. Yegulalp, "Google's Cloud Spanner Melds Transactional Consistency, NoSQL Scale," InfoWorld, May 4, 2017; A. Cobley, "Google Spanner in the NewSQL Works?" The Register, March 21, 2017; D. Borsos, "Google Cloud Spanner: Our First Impressions," OpenCredo, March 7, 2017; F. Lardinois, "Google Launches Cloud Spanner, Its New Globally Distributed Relational Database Service," TechCrunch, February 14, 2017; C. Metz, "Spanner, the Google Database that Mastered Time, Is Now Open to Everyone," Wired, February 14, 2017; B. Darrow, "Google Spanner Database Surfaces at Last," Fortune, February 14, 2017; C. Metz, "Google Unites Worldwide Data Centers with GPS and Atomic Clocks," Wired UK, September 20, 2012; and wwwgoogle.com, accessed June 27, 2019