Google Street View is officially 15 years old and to celebrate its anniversary, Google announced today that it has developed a new Street View Camera that is small enough to fit on any vehicle.
The tech company describes the camera as being roughly the same size as a housecat and weighing just 15 pounds (7 kg). The company is still piloting the new camera, but it will take all of the power and resolution of an entire Street View Car and will shrink it down to a unit that’s small enough to easily be lifted by a human.
Importantly, when it fully launches next year, it will be small enough to be shipped pretty much anywhere on earth, making it perfect for use by partners in areas that have not been mapped as extensively, like the Amazon rainforest.
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It will also be easy to attach to any roof rack and users will be able to operate it with a mobile device. That means that vehicles don’t need to be specialized in an extensive way and users don’t need any complex processing equipment. That, says Google, will make it easier to start adding hybrids and EVs to its fleet of vehicles.
The camera will also be customizable, and the system will be able to incorporate lidar to collect imagery with even more detail. That means that stuff like lane markings, speed limits, and even potholes will be seen by the camera. For the old system, entirely new camera systems had to be developed whenever Google wanted to collect different types of images.
All of these new capabilities will allow Google to make its Maps and Street View programs even more useful. The company plans to use AI to make Maps as up-to-date as possible and Live View will allow users to overlay directions over the real world with augmented reality. Immersive View, meanwhile, will allow maps users to actually go inside stores to check businesses out.
Finally, to celebrate Street View’s 15th anniversary, Maps users will have the ability to change their navigation icon to the Street View car by simply tapping the chevron when using driving navigations. On the computer, meanwhile, the Pegman that you can drop anywhere on a map to get to Street View will be dressed in a birthday outfit.