# How does google maps work?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 13, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838 "2013-11-13T17:57:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/1 "2013-11-13T17:57:11Z")
More specifically, how does a navigation system using Google maps get all of the pictures of each inch of road i’m driving on?
I set my navigation system to show me the way home from an unfamiliar spot last week, and I pulled into my driveway, the picture on my GPS monitor showed me pulling into my driveway, with both of my cars right in front of me! It was surreal.
How in the world does that program take pictures that look like they are taken at eye level? I assume pictures are taken by satellites, but that would provide a birds eye view, not a human eye view.
This was both cool and frightening. One of these days, i’m going to be in one of these pictures, and. Ill drive into my driveway and see me standing there. That’s a Foghorn Leghorn moment in real life! (“No, i’d better not look… I just might be in there.”)
Anyone know?
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/2 "2013-11-13T18:00:06Z")
Overhead images are taken by an airplane (not a satellite).
Ground level images are taken by a car. Here’s what the car looks like with all of the camera gear installed:
[http://endthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Street-View-vehicle-Google.jpg](http://endthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Street-View-vehicle-Google.jpg)
ETA:
And people do sometimes pose for the google maps car, hoping that their image will show up online. Some of these poses are a bit more rude than others, too.
> **[Street View Car Drives Past At REALLY Awkward Time](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/07/australian-couple-sex-google-street-view_n_3058977.html)**
>
> Street View Car Drives Past At REALLY Awkward Time
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/3 "2013-11-13T18:00:30Z")
> **[Google Street View](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View)**
>
> Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expanded to include cities and rural areas worldwide. Streets with Street View imagery available are shown as blue lines on Google Maps.
> Google Street View displays interactively panoramas of stitched VR photographs. Most photography is done by car, but some ...
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/4 "2013-11-13T18:31:53Z")
I’m curious to know what GPS you’re using that shows Street View images? It doesn’t seem like that would be very useful for actually navigating…
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/5 "2013-11-13T18:34:56Z")
I meant to comment on the surreal aspect of Street View to add that the Street View image of my previous residence (a condo neighborhood) shows my car _and only my car_ parked in front of the building I live in. Which means almost certainly that they came through on a day I was off or home sick and coincidentally everyone else who lives in our adjoined quadriplex of condos was away doing other things. It creeped me out a bit when I first discovered it.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/6 "2013-11-13T19:27:20Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#):
>
> I meant to comment on the surreal aspect of Street View to add that the Street View image of my previous residence (a condo neighborhood) shows my car _and only my car_ parked in front of the building I live in. Which means almost certainly that they came through on a day I was off or home sick and coincidentally everyone else who lives in our adjoined quadriplex of condos was away doing other things. It creeped me out a bit when I first discovered it.
Yeah, on Google Street View my house has my parents-in-law’s car parked out front and my truck is NOT parked in front of the house- that narrows down the date and time considerably.
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### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/7 "2013-11-13T19:45:01Z")
I remember seeing an article somewhere about cheating spouses who were outed by Google Street view. Lesson: if you’re going where you shouldn’t be, take a taxi. Assuming you’re not planning a crime, of course. 🙂
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### Author:  [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/8 "2013-11-13T20:19:15Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Overhead images are taken by an airplane (not a satellite).
Not necessarily. Unlike with street view, Google mostly doesn’t collect that imagery themselves but is instead presenting data from government or other private sources. In some places the most zoomed-in overhead imagery is aerial and in others it’s satellite. It just depends on what data sources are available. Although these days they’ve been adding the even more zoomed-in 45 degree tilted imagery, which is obviously aerial.
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### Author:  [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/9 "2013-11-13T20:42:35Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Overhead images are taken by an airplane (not a satellite).
>
> Ground level images are taken by a car. Here’s what the car looks like with all of the camera gear installed:
> [MP3Juice - Free High Quality MP3 Juice Music Download](http://endthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Street-View-vehicle-Google.jpg)
I had no idea this is what they are doing, but now the camera shot/view makes sense.
Which means they turned into my driveway. That is a bit disturbing, if you ask me. First, i don’t need help navigating into my driveway from the road, so why on earth would they feel a need to turn into the driveway? It’ the only way you can see the cars parked there.
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> I’m curious to know what GPS you’re using that shows Street View images? It doesn’t seem like that would be very useful for actually navigating…
I honestly don’t know. It’s on my cell phone. It’s an htc phone, if that helps. I don’t know anything about the phone and hate it, but the navigation is excellent.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/10 "2013-11-13T21:02:56Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#):
>
> I had no idea this is what they are doing, but now the camera shot/view makes sense.
>
> Which means they turned into my driveway. That is a bit disturbing, if you ask me. First, i don’t need help navigating into my driveway from the road, so why on earth would they feel a need to turn into the driveway? It’ the only way you can see the cars parked there.
>
> I honestly don’t know. It’s on my cell phone. It’s an htc phone, if that helps. I don’t know anything about the phone and hate it, but the navigation is excellent.
Google maps on my Android phone typically shows the street view image of your destination when you get there. I assume that is what you saw, not the streetview images along the way.
BTW there is a [great game](http://geoguessr.com/) which gives you a street view image, lets you “drive” to the next of previous images, and asks you to guess where you are in the world.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/11 "2013-11-13T21:59:06Z")
I drove alongside a Google Street View Car for a good mile on my commute into work this spring. I’m still looking forward to my eventual Internet debut! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/12 "2013-11-13T22:00:24Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#):
>
> Which means they turned into my driveway.
I don’t think so, unless the image could only have been taken from the driveway itself. I believe they just shoot from the public thoroughfare and zoom in as appropriate to simulate going down your driveway.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-google-maps-work/673838/13 "2013-11-13T22:03:47Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#):
>
> Which means they turned into my driveway. That is a bit disturbing, if you ask me. First, i don’t need help navigating into my driveway from the road, so why on earth would they feel a need to turn into the driveway? It’ the only way you can see the cars parked there.
There’s a “Report a Problem” link in Street View, you can ask them to delete the image of your driveway if you are really concerned by this. I’ve noticed the coverage sometime turning off a road and into gas stations and up to a gas pump before.