Check out the Immersive Media street-scanning car

It looks like Immersive Media wanted to remove all doubt about what that street-traversing fleet of theirs really looks like. There's obviously more than one vehicle scanning in streets across the US, but now you know what to look out for -- and you little punks in the audience now realize just how tantalizing a target that little 11 camera orb on the roof really happens to be.

[MR @ May 31st 2007 10:30PM]

I think they've gone too far. Sure you get more details of some places but it sounds more useful for the stalkers than for us normal people.

[staticfritz @ May 31st 2007 10:53PM]

My friends drive one of those around!
they have a body harness for the camera too...
crazyness! the media is being used for the new streetview feature on google maps

[Dave @ Jun 4th 2007 12:17PM]

You could always put a bag over your head.

[Matt O @ May 31st 2007 11:08PM]

haha that would be an interesting conversation starter... "hey, i was using google maps the other days and saw your genitals, i think it was around 465 main st."

[Cletus Cook @ Jun 1st 2007 5:29AM]

Unless you had seen them could you be sure that was their genitalia?

[Killian @ May 31st 2007 11:35PM]

VW FTW

[paul34 @ Jun 1st 2007 12:12AM]

For a utility Beetle, those are actually some pretty nice wheels. I get tired of seeing people who just abuse their cars... and drive around with beat up steelies. Gets old after a while.

Good job!

[makethemove+engadge @ Jun 1st 2007 12:38AM]

oh, I wouldn't put my VW Jetta 2.5 on the streets unless Mr. Schmidt decides to offer me a position in the Labs and not on a street by street basis...:-)

[ian9outof10 @ Jun 1st 2007 7:12AM]

I'm on ur streetz mappin your citiz

[hydrogen_wv @ Jun 1st 2007 8:41AM]

How often do they update the images? Do the cars drive hte street multiple times per day, or just once every month or so? How fast do you think they will add more cities?

[tiuk @ Jun 1st 2007 10:53AM]

My guess is not frequently at all.

[Jr @ Jun 2nd 2007 9:10PM]

Every day??? What's the point??? My street looks the same as yesterday, and will look the same tomorrow. It will probably look the same 5 years from now. It would seem that updating the pics every 5 to 10 years would be more a likely scenario. It's a database of street photos, not a live webcam.

[Hiroe @ Jun 1st 2007 9:47AM]

i think i found that car.if you can look carefully you can see the camera at the top also. here is the picture link http://www.bildirgec.org/imaj/Hiroe/google-2.jpg

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=new+york&ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.723589,-73.999957&cbp=1,213.605618971061,0.669399115755627,2&ll=40.735551,-74.006224&spn=0.04546,0.080338&z=14

[//austin @ Jun 1st 2007 11:35AM]

Wow. Way better than NavTeq / TeleAtlas' version.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/522880246/

[Hezekiah @ Jun 1st 2007 11:38AM]

Looks like they're down in Moab, in Arches National Park. That would be cool if they added a street view of that area.

[Robert @ Jun 1st 2007 6:29PM]

@ MR:
It would be very useful for going to clubs, restaurants and bars that don't always display the address in the window, you can see what the building looks like and what your looking for.

[Paco @ Jun 1st 2007 8:49PM]

if you want to pimp ze auto say vut?

sorry, had to say it.

[ext237 @ Jun 4th 2007 3:04PM]

Found one.

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=6+bond+street,+new+york&sll=40.73243,-73.992577&sspn=0.023935,0.040169&ie=UTF8&ll=40.729747,-73.994915&spn=0.011968,0.020084&z=16&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.727045,-73.994947&cbp=1,215.774879421221,0.695845391211147,1

[Jermaine Pulliam @ Jun 4th 2007 12:07PM]

New V Dub for under $17,000.

[KDM2 @ Jun 4th 2007 12:47PM]

Though it is a "cute" way of capturing street view data, you would think that Google would have chosen a greener vehicle to crawl the streets. At approximately 20 mpg city with the New Beetle, I would have liked to see Google promote a Prius or another 40+ mpg hybrid vehicle. Not only would this be more eco-friendly regarding emissions, but also conserve fuel with the eye-popping gas prices these days. An entirely electric vehicle wouldn't hurt either, considering they convince GM to bring back the EV1.

[asurroca @ Jun 4th 2007 1:15PM]

Hey, it could always be a TDI fueled with biodiesel...

[KDM2 @ Jun 4th 2007 1:16PM]

and by "Google" I mean Immersive Media, the company capturing the data for Google, sorry G!

[Bill @ Jun 4th 2007 1:36PM]

I can't wait til those cars come to Dallas. I'm wondering why they don't use hybrid vehicles to do this? Woudln't it be more cost-effective to use a hybrid rather than a VW bug?

[Zach @ Jun 4th 2007 2:55PM]

These are already in DFW. Saw one in Plano near PGBT not too long ago.

Makes me want to go rent a panel van with pr0n adverts on the side and box them in. >:-)

[michaelfoley @ Jun 4th 2007 6:41PM]

Street View is great. I just used it yesterday to find the cool building that houses the Food TV Network studios in Manhattan. Anyone know of a way to predict the vehicles location or path, waiting on the sidewalk to get your picture taken will be easier than looking up and waiting for a satellite photo.

[interniek @ Jun 5th 2007 5:59AM]

Or this car from Cylcomedia in 2003 http://web.inter.nl.net/users/interniek/hagazine/denhaag/voertuigen/cyclomedia2.JPG

[interniek @ Jun 5th 2007 5:59AM]

Or this story in Hagaz!ne http://web.inter.nl.net/users/interniek/hagazine/2003/06/gadgets.html#360

[GeoTrotter @ Jun 5th 2007 8:07AM]

I added here the best Google Street View.

[GeoTrotter @ Jun 5th 2007 8:08AM]

I added all the best "Google Street View" here : http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-street-view.php.

[YNot @ Jun 5th 2007 3:48PM]

This site has a large selection of interesting StreetView finds:

http://www.mapmole.com

[Tom @ Jun 10th 2007 4:25PM]

They're just gathering all the data they possibly can so they know what to do when they take over the world after they conquer the internet pretty soon.