So I drove behind (what I assume was) a Google Street View car today. It had google stamped on the side of the car with a large panoramic camera device on top, computer equipment inside, with California plates.
Wierd thing is that I work at VERY rural school in the middle of Texas, so I found it kinda strange that it was crusing down the lane. Cool thing is that a few of my students were outside at the school and could have been caught on camera, as well as me trailing in my car.
The Question - is it likely that this was indeed a Street View camera car? Is it likely that the cameras would have been recording my school’s rural street? How long until I get to see me and my students online?
Seems likely. They’ve done some fairly rural-ish areas near me.
Check out Indianapolis, for example. It seems they start out in a major city, and once that’s done, they sort of use the city as a base and drive out along both highways and smaller roads to nearby cities. link
Several months ago, Google was hiring drivers to map the “in-between” parts of the country. Presumably, this includes those parts that aren’t in major metropolitan areas.
I wonder if they trace the route multiple times? I was stuck behind one for a bit getting off the Ambassador bridge through downtown Detroit. I eventually was able to pass and get on my way, and then a few weeks later, Detroit got street view, but I can’t find my car anywhere.
They have held off on doing both Baltimore and Washington due to security concerns. From what I have heard though, they do plan on completing those two cities some time in the near future.
There are other companies doing the same thing; you may have spotted one of them. One is the holy-shit-you-kick-Google’s-ass http://www.mapjack.com/ which is SF Bay Area-only at the moment.
I’d be interested in doing this too. But I can’t find any info anywhere about how to get a job doing this.
I think the neighborhood views are pretty cool. Suburban (or rural) Indianapolis doesn’t look much different from the suburbs of New Orleans, except the lack of sidewalks.
This could also be good material for a game in the new “Game Room”, such as a scavenger hunt…Spot the red '75 Chrysler Cordoba backed into a driveway in suburban Indianapolis and win a brand new '75 Chrysler Cordoba with Rich Corinthian Leather!
Wow, you ain’t kidding…Google Maps got served. Hopefully this thing will expand its coverage to other cities; I can’t think of a more useful tool for making tourist plans.
I like the fact that if you look down, you can see the car it’s mounted on.
How fast do these cars go. I find it odd that nothing is blurred, indicating that they go somewhat slow, but no one is looking at car suggesting that it’s not just creeping by.
Eitherway, pretty freaking impressive the way it’s all stiched together so well.
There are a few blurry shots in New York City. I think the exposure might’ve been longer because it was overcast.
If the camera is shooting a 1/500 or 1/1000 exposure in bright daylight and the car is moving around 30 MPH, there’s not going to be much blur, if any at all.
I was trying to find a section of Broadway in Harlem and started navigating down some of the side streets and there was a guy walking towards his car and in the 3 frames I looked at, it only looked like he took a few steps. I’m not exactly sure how far apart the pictures are taken, but I’d guess the camera had move about 50 or 60 feet across the three shots, so the car certainly wasn’t just creeping along.
I also noticed what must have been an early morning shot driving along one of the streets that cross Central Park because when you look at the view facing east, everything is washed out by the sun just over the horizon.
