Google Maps and Street View have become almost a necessity when navigating these days. Keeping their data up to date is a priority and to keep them at the top of their game they’ve unleashed a new fleet of Street View cars that will be hitting the streets this week.
The new fleet of eight vehicles, which appear to be Opel Astra’s based on the manufacturer logo on the grille, includes new camera technology, the first update to the cameras in eight years.
The new cameras are able to ‘capture higher quality, sharper imagery and in low light conditions across Australia’ says Veril Sjarif, Street View Operations Lead, Google Australia and New Zealand.
Since its launch in 2007, Google has mapped many areas in Australia and around the world, allowing people to experience an immersive look at places they may never visit. Google has covered many of Australia’s beautiful locations including Rottnest island (complete with smiling Quokkas!), Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and even gone underwater to cover the Great Barrier Reef.
The new Street View cars won’t be heading underwater, but will be heading to the streets of Sydney and Melbourne before expanding further afield. Google won’t actually give you specifics on when/where the Street View cars are headed on a given day/time, but you can get a rough idea on the Google Street View site.
One of the previous gen of Street View cars was mapping near Westfield Chermside in Brisbane a few weeks back. So far, those images haven’t appeared on Street View.
With that being how recent the previous gen were still in active service, it could well be a long while before some places are graced with the presence of these new vehicles
One of these passed me the other day in Sydney. Just checked street view, I’m not there yet.