The Google Street View vehicle revealed

By now, we're pretty sure you've heard about Google's new Street View feature, right? If you're like us, you've been wondering about the vehicles they're using to create those voyeuristic, 360-degree, street-level images in Manhattan's concrete canyons and beyond. Well, here's a hint: that's Immersive Media's vehicle reflected in the Street View picture captured above. Now, if they could just find ET we'd be all set. Oh right, they have. Oh Google, is there anything you can't do?

[Thanks, Aaron B.]

Read -- Google's deal with Immersive
Read -- Link to Street View picture

[John @ May 31st 2007 8:51AM]

In the wrong hands, a set up like that could be used for evil. Just sayin.

[Josh @ May 31st 2007 10:07AM]

How do you figure? As other posters have said, this is not new technology by a pretty big stretch. The only thing that makes this unique at all is Google's frontend for it, and its integration into gMaps.

[Ignacio @ May 31st 2007 5:50PM]

"In the wrong hands, a set up like that could be used for evil. Just sayin."

In the wrong hands, a clock could be used for evil.
In the wrong hands, a shoelace could be used for evil.
In the wrong hands, a cellphone could be used for evil.
In the wrong hands, a car could be used for evil.

And... I ran out of random things nearby to name.

[thak @ May 31st 2007 9:16AM]

didn't amazon's A9 search have this feature??? it seemed pretty useless then...but now that the big G has it, i guess we all need it.

[Genuis Bartender @ May 31st 2007 9:20AM]

We've had this in Paris via the Yellow Pages website for like 5 years already.

[Jeff @ May 31st 2007 9:27AM]

The camera is a pretty interesting piece of equipment. The company that makes it is called Immersive media. You can see pictures of it at http://immersivemedia.com/

[Leonardo Meurer @ May 31st 2007 9:32AM]

Eu quero um carro desses aqui na minha cidade. Mto legal

[musanti @ May 31st 2007 9:43AM]

an astro van? come on goog so not cool... im dissapointed in you

[Je2037 @ May 31st 2007 9:45AM]

just checked out my blocks back home. cool idea.

[Allan @ May 31st 2007 9:57AM]

Astro Van FTL. :(

[KYDS3K @ May 31st 2007 10:32AM]

i'm still searching the NYC streets for the picture of somebody getting mugged . . .

[Dave @ May 31st 2007 2:44PM]

I'm searching Detroit for photos of someone stealing the camera....

[hydrogen_wv @ May 31st 2007 10:37AM]

The end is near...

Walmart and Google are both taking over the world... One day we will all be Googlemart employees in some form... The bible will be re-written, democracy will fail... The one's who do not accept the domination of googlemart will have to hide in their houses, drinking their own urine while toting rocket launchers to defend themselves from the Googlemart-bots that are trying to arrest them and make them work as door-greeters.

[Giancarlo @ May 31st 2007 11:33AM]

There should be a contest to find the funniest picture. I've already spotted some strange ones by my work here in Miami.

[Che @ May 31st 2007 11:38AM]

There should be a contest for the first person to find a picture of him or herself. It shouldn't be that hard.

[Blaise @ Dec 11th 2008 1:52PM]

I already have found a picture of myself, albeit unrecognizable through the windows of my car parked in front of a friend's house.

My wife and I wonder how we were able to miss the camera vehicle passing by. After looking at the "Immersive Media"'s website, it is now easy to understand. A car with tinted windows and a roof-mounted disco ball is not an unusual sight in my part of Georgia!

Regards,
Blaise.

[matt @ May 31st 2007 11:42AM]

these pics aren't remotely real time right?

[Kit Cowan @ May 31st 2007 11:45AM]

yes amazon had this feature 2 years ago and discontinued it this past winter. I suspect they did so becuase the images become quickly out of date. I did a google street view of my street and there are images there from over a year ago - resturants and stores and come and gone and there's my google street view. unless the images are going to be linked to realtime cameras in large cities i think it's pretty much just a novelty.

[Nobuyuki Idei @ Jun 1st 2007 8:37AM]

Are you kidding? Most places in America, and the rest of the world, remain fairly static. This is not just a feature for your local store front, but for general scenery, which, for the most part, do not change.

[LC @ May 31st 2007 1:18PM]

Just make sure you are wearing a disguise when leaving a strip club and told your wife you were working.

http://www.google.com/maps?q=970+OFarrell+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94109,+USA&ie=UTF8&ll=37.7889,-122.417489&spn=0.006774,0.013561&z=17&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.785489,-122.417975&cbp=2,438.82277544807,0.667036460163099,2

[LC @ May 31st 2007 1:19PM]

Or going in an adult book store.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=adult+bookstore&near=San+Francisco,+CA&ie=UTF8&ll=37.805224,-122.269753&spn=0.005934,0.013497&z=17&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.802235,-122.270234&cbp=2,193.166234927653,0.586039148021709,3

[Chris @ May 31st 2007 2:21PM]

that's a weird artifact.

out of date or not, this kind of thing can be a great help in finding a place. it's not so much the the shops, but what the building looks like. google maps satellite view has helped me find many places that would have been very hard to find otherwise, and that's years out of date.

[Santz24 @ May 31st 2007 2:24PM]

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/31/google_maps_zoom_her.html

Heres another vehicle!

[GIS Pilot @ May 31st 2007 2:35PM]

Here's a pic of the van in San Francisco.

http://stategis.blogspot.com/2007/05/human-layer-on-google-maps.html

[toby robbins @ May 31st 2007 2:59PM]

The WS http://www.streetviewr.com has lots of pictures.

[siouxmoux @ May 31st 2007 3:02PM]

I thought the Roving Google Street Van would be all white with the Google Logo with big font all over it. Not this Black Secretive Mystery Van. Google is turning to the Evil Side everyday now.

[Matt @ May 31st 2007 3:03PM]

So who drives these things?

[GBaz @ May 31st 2007 3:14PM]

another view. not as clear
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.871827,-122.268356&cbp=2,263.306329353911,0.560851827385273,3&ll=37.89057,-122.264528&spn=0.037187,0.113554&z=14

[Mike Jorgenson @ May 31st 2007 3:25PM]

Isn't there any privacy anymore?

[MasterCKO @ May 31st 2007 5:09PM]

um, there is no privacy on PUBLIC STREETS. If you thought there was, you've been deluding yourself for quite some time now.

[Shocker @ May 31st 2007 3:45PM]

I'm waiting for the first murder caught on film. ;)

[Philip @ May 31st 2007 5:25PM]

Maybe a NYC VW bug? http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=35+west+35th+street&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.57764,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=40.752508,-73.985431&spn=0.011671,0.019312&z=16&om=0&layer=c&cbll=40.749682,-73.985473&cbp=1,214.874276527331,0.5,0

[lorenzo @ Jun 1st 2007 4:14AM]

Hi folks, i'm doing the google's van search from yesterday...
Here a lot of nice shoots I've found:

http://www.verosimile.it/index.php?itemid=24#more

[Dustin @ Jun 1st 2007 5:47AM]

"In the wrong hands, a set up like that could be used for evil. Just sayin."

wrongo.. Google. Do No Evil. remember??

[Mike @ Jun 1st 2007 9:28AM]

here's a video of new york using street view images

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF4bd_AGd0U

[Fred @ Jun 1st 2007 10:57AM]

Check out this huge list of "interesting: finds on Google Street View:

http://www.laudontech.com/StreetView/streetview.html

[Gnomezero @ Jun 1st 2007 5:53PM]

Here we can see the van:
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/3307/screen00128jj0.jpg

[Andrew @ Jun 1st 2007 6:39PM]

is it weird that the link for ET is not even a 20 minute drive from my house? i should probably go check that out

[GeoTrotter @ Jun 2nd 2007 11:04AM]

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

[WalterGR @ Jun 3rd 2007 2:41AM]

I'm making a list of good shots... you can search by category and leave comments... StreetReviewer.com.

[ineffible @ Jun 4th 2007 1:05AM]

I saw the van closeup and got a clear hires image of the panoramic camera:
http://www.mcs.csueastbay.edu/~tebo/GoogleStreetViewVan/

[GeoTrotter @ Jun 4th 2007 12:03PM]

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

[YNot @ Jun 4th 2007 2:21PM]

Here is a site that has a large selection of StreetView finds:

http://www.mapmole.com

[Hennik @ Jun 6th 2007 5:15PM]

There seems to be many ET's all around New York

[Ward @ Jun 7th 2007 6:35PM]

Look, God is smiting something on the sidewalk in Denver!

Woah, check this one out, Google got a picture of God smiting something on the sidewalk

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1700+Lincoln+St,+Denver,+Denver,+Colorado+80203,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.701751,64.599609&ie=UTF8&cd=1&om=1&layer=c&cbll=39.748738,-105.001309&cbp=1,184.318713826367,0.5,0&ll=39.755604,-104.998269&spn=0.013362,0.036693&z=15

[CJ @ Jun 7th 2007 9:10PM]

This is the point of technology? Invasion of privacy? Brilliant stuff, uh, huh.

[nick @ Jun 8th 2007 8:19AM]

Congratulations to Google ppl who invented this amazing program! Fantastic stuff! Keep it up :) [just work with high resolutions, as in San Francisco] :) peace.

[dude @ Jun 8th 2007 11:25AM]

can someone give me a link to get the newest google earth and street view download? ive searched everywhere i can think of and havent found it. I would greatly appreciate it.

[tod @ Jun 8th 2007 12:22PM]

Here is a cool site for listings of new Street View finds.

http://topstreetviews.com/

Enjoy :)

[ELCouz @ Jun 25th 2007 10:26PM]

Google Van revealed here in real! hehe

http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~tebo/GoogleStreetViewVan/