Google Street View Car in Bangalore

The much-hyped Google Street View Car is planning to move across Namma Bangaluru to collect photographs of the prime roads of Bangalore and then uploading it on Google Maps and Google Earth to give us some breathtaking panoramic views of the beautiful Bangalore.

According to an statement made by Google officials, "They will begin imagery collection in Bangalore for the Street View feature in Google Maps. Google cars and trikes will today begin driving and taking street level photographs of public locations around the city. The images will be made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps."

Now, that sounds really cool.  But do you really want to know how Google has been able to show us such great detailed images?  This is how it works.  Google Street View displays images taken from a fleet of specially adapted cars. Areas not accessible by car, like pedestrian areas, narrow streets, alleys, and ski resorts, are sometimes covered by Google Trikes (tricycles) or a snowmobile. On each of these vehicles, there are 9 directional cameras for 360-degree views at a height of about 8.2 feet, or 2.5 meters, GPS units for positioning, and 3 laser range scanners for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180 degrees in the front of the vehicle. There are also 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots.

Those terms really sound super-cool high-tech stuff, but I really doubt that those sophisticated Google cars will be able to handle the Super Bangalorean roads with those amazing bumper to bumper traffic right across Hosur Road to Majestic to Mysore Road junction.  If those sophisticated cars get lost in Bangalore traffic, I don't know how Google Earth or Google Maps are going to find them in the famous Bangloarean traffic.  What says guys???

© 2011 Ranjan Kumar