GSV Car Sightings

[NE2]

http://goo.gl/maps/mA2S

[vtk]

I was driving on I-675 SB near Dayton earlier this year in a company van and saw a GSV car.  It was dusk, though, so I don't think they were collecting imagery at the time.

[mgk920]

I saw one working here in Appleton on Wednesday (2012-09-05).  I was stopped first in line at a red light on WB Calumet St at Memorial Dr (WI 47) on the city's south side and it turned from SB Memorial Dr onto westbound Grove St.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=44.243155,-88.415651&spn=0.008824,0.013797&t=h&z=16

Apparently, it (or perhaps even two of them) was working in the area all week.

I suppose that we were due for another visit from them - existing Streetview imagery from the Appleton area is low-res and was shot in 2007.

Mike

[Mr. Matté]

A Redditor spotted one on the Garden State Parkway/Driscoll Bridge recently: http://imgur.com/a/kmYQw

[doorknob60]

I've seen it three different times around Bend. One South of Bend on US 97 (we were going SB, I think the GSV car was going NB). Once parked along the river at Farewell Bend Park, and once in the parking lot of Ray's Food Place (got a pic of this one):


The different sightings were multiple weeks apart too, weird, but all in the span of like 3-4 months.

[mgk920]

^^
This is a bit of a tangent here, but as part of my ongoing historic routing research work with the Yellowstone Trail guys, I frequently refer to early 20th century touring guides called 'Automobile Blue Books', which were published in several volumes on an annual basis from the early 1900s into the mid-1920s, for critical information on where roads went at the time of the Auto Trails.  Each volume covered a section of the USA (the number of volumes and their coverage varied from year to year), 800-1000 pages each, with lists upon lists upon lists of turn-by-turn directions for driving from city to city at that time.  This was at a time when many rural roads were primitive tracks at best, nearly all intercity travel was by rail and automobiles were essentially rich mans' toys used mainly for 'hobby' touring.  When new, these guides retailed for either $2 or $3 each - serious money at that time, equal to about $150-250 each today.

Many of those Blue Books have a page or two where they show a photo of a part of their fleet of data-gathering cars along with a description of what they did while on the road.  Except for the obvious differences in technology and only a very slightly changed mission, what those modern-day Google Streetview camera cars are out doing today is exactly the same as what those Blue Book cars and their crews were out doing a century ago.

Amazing, at least to me.



Mike

[national highway 1]

I actually myself got caught on GSV on the way home from school:
http://goo.gl/maps/h7pyl 

[ljwestmcsd]

When they did the Google Street View of the Dempster Highway in northern Yukon Territory, they took two vehicles, so you can almost always see the second vehicle in most of the shots.
They both appear to be vehicles that one would think would be unable to make the Dempster Highway to Inuvik -- small foreign imports.
BTW, When you get to the end of the road in the Northwest Territories, you will see a dumpy cabin. Does anyone know why they would build a road to that place?

If you search in far northern Mountain View, California [Google's headquarters], you can occasionally see parts of the bicycle they used to get the street view of the trails bordering San Francisco Bay.

When they came down our cul-de-sac, they shot my son on the front porch. He came in to tell me, but I didn't get outside in time to see it.

[rickmastfan67]

When they did the Google Street View of the Dempster Highway in northern Yukon Territory, they took two vehicles, so you can almost always see the second vehicle in most of the shots.

On Ontario 17, I found in several places that they had 3 cars in a draft together.  Sometimes the pictures would be from the 1st car, then the 2nd, and sometimes the 3rd along that route.

[Special K]

...they shot my son on the front porch.

I hope he's OK.

[oscar]

When they did the Google Street View of the Dempster Highway in northern Yukon Territory, they took two vehicles, so you can almost always see the second vehicle in most of the shots.
They both appear to be vehicles that one would think would be unable to make the Dempster Highway to Inuvik -- small foreign imports.
BTW, When you get to the end of the road in the Northwest Territories, you will see a dumpy cabin. Does anyone know why they would build a road to that place?

Navy Road (which I would not count as part of the Dempster, but never mind) continues north of Inuvik to a lake, where locals might go fishing and hunting, and also some of the local First Nations population might live up there.  It also connects to the planned extension of NT 8 to Tuktoyaktuk.  That extension will replace a winter ice road (one of the roads featured in "Ice Road Truckers") with an all-season road to the Arctic coast.

While I would not be comfortable driving a low-clearance vehicle on the Dempster (enough potholes to make high clearance useful), it can be done, especially in a convoy like the GSV cars were in so you'll have help at hand if one car breaks down.  On Alaska's Dalton Highway (almost as rough as the Dempster), I saw a classic 1959 Ford Galaxie that made it, intact, at least to Coldfoot at milemarker 175.  I saw quite a few bicyclists on both highways, too. 

[national highway 1]

...they shot my son on the front porch.

I hope he's OK.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I've seen multiple GSV car convoys along TCH 1 east of Winnipeg. I assume it's the same crew that did Highway 17 in Ontario.

[Special K]

Detroit.

[deathtopumpkins]

Found something interesting on the Dempster Hwy in NWT: http://goo.gl/maps/Inwxf

[Special K]

Found something interesting on the Dempster Hwy in NWT: http://goo.gl/maps/Inwxf

Cleaning off the lenses.  If you look backwards, you can see the 2nd car's driver also doing this.

[deathtopumpkins]

Yeah, it's obvious that's what they're doing. I just thought it was interesting that they got it on camera rather than stopping to do it.

[vdeane]

Probably to keep the imagery continuous.  They only use certain frames anyways (which is too bad... it would be really cool to be able to play back the original video).

[Special K]

I don't think they're taking video.  I think it's a series of stills taken at regular distance intervals as the vehicle moves.

[Road Hog]

I actually myself got caught on GSV on the way home from school:
http://goo.gl/maps/h7pyl 

You don't look a day over 14 years, 364 days.

[Alps]

I actually myself got caught on GSV on the way home from school:
http://goo.gl/maps/h7pyl 

You don't look a day over 14 years, 364 days.

Is he wearing a skirt?

[BamaZeus]

My friend spotted the car coming down his street in Louisiana a few years ago, and the camera caught him waving at the driver, as he was doing some yard work.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I don't think they're taking video.  I think it's a series of stills taken at regular distance intervals as the vehicle moves.

Indeed, they take stills at a rate of one per 5 metres, I think.

[BamaZeus]

Funny that this topic came up, because a friend of mine in CT saw the car go by her house just this morning.  She tried to take a pic of it, but only caught the very edge of it.

[Road Hog]

I don't think they're taking video.  I think it's a series of stills taken at regular distance intervals as the vehicle moves.

Indeed, they take stills at a rate of one per 5 metres, I think.

I wish they'd cut the interval at least in half. It's maddening to approach a road sign, be too far away to read it, go to the next frame and be behind the sign. The image resolution needs to be upgraded, too.

All these improvements are doable in the five or so years since GSV was rolled out.