Big Brother is Watching

Richard

I know this isn't a very good photograph, but I thought I would share it anyway. It's a Google car taking shots for Street View:

I only had seconds to react, so I just pointed my camera and hoped for the best. Looks like it has at least eight cameras on top; I'm not sure what the other boxes are--probably GPS gear. So far, I haven't seen a picture of me taking this shot on Google Maps.

DavidTO

Richard wrote:

I know this isn't a very good photograph, but I thought I would share it anyway. It's a Google car taking shots for Street View:

That's cool to see, Richard. I always wondered about that. I wonder if you'll ever see yourself, as I would think those big, honkin' buses right there in the way would make those frames unusable. I mean, isn't the point to be able to see the buildings?

Richard

DavidTO wrote:

That's cool to see, Richard. I always wondered about that. I wonder if you'll ever see yourself, as I would think those big, honkin' buses right there in the way would make those frames unusable. I mean, isn't the point to be able to see the buildings?

Yeah, but I'm guessing that they must make multiple passes through an area to get everything they need. The current Street View where my shot was taken shows no buses at all, and from the light, I'm guessing that it was taken earlier in the morning. Of course, there's a pretty good likelihood that they weren't shooting at all, but were on their way to meet someone for tapas.

dlplumer

Very cool Richard

jasonstone

saw one of them when we were on holidays in the California in July - had to look twice to work out what it was! bizarre looking contraption...

on a side note, wonder how long it will be until Madrid street view is up so that I can use it when planning my upcoming long weekend with the family there

actually haven't been to Madrid for waaay too long (around 9yrs i think) so really looking forward to it!

Cheers, Jase

DaddyO

Heck Richard, this is definitely a nice enough shot ta do the job.
Tells the story well. Part of which is to expect a lot of tour buses in town.
Hope you are imaged in the final work from Google.

In a search of Google street view, I was very surprised to find our home
photo'd. Small out of the way town with little special interest. At least
this is what I would have thought. Michael

Richard

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Jase: Street View is already available for most of central Madrid. Just go to Google Maps. Let me know when you plan to be in Madrid and maybe we can get together for beer and tapas.

Michael: My place in Madrid is clearly visible, as is my parents' home in Chicago and my old apartment in San Francisco. You can run but you can't hide--it's just a tad spooky.

Skippy

Richard wrote:

I know this isn't a very good photograph, but I thought I would share it anyway. It's a Google car taking shots for Street View:

I only had seconds to react, so I just pointed my camera and hoped for the best. Looks like it has at least eight cameras on top; I'm not sure what the other boxes are--probably GPS gear. So far, I haven't seen a picture of me taking this shot on Google Maps.

Hi Richard I saw something like that in Geelong a few weeks ago,
but the message on the car was something like Satellite Mapping?

Did that one say something similar? .... Skippy
.

Richard

Skippy wrote:

Hi Richard I saw something like that in Geelong a few weeks ago,
but the message on the car was something like Satellite Mapping?

Did that one say something similar? .... Skippy
.

It all happened pretty quickly, but I did see the Google logo on the side of the car.