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Google Maps Street View Car (moved)

I had another encounter with the Google Maps street view car. Unlike my last sighting of the Google Mobile, which was little more than a blur, this time I had a chance actually take a close look at (and of course some pictures) the hacked by Google, Chevy Cobalt.

This time, the Google Maps car just happened to be parked on the same street that my great uncle lives on (downtown Charleston, SC), and I actually spoke briefly with the driver, who said that he was actually working through a temp agency, and was covering the whole state of South Carolina. I asked if I could come by the next day and take some pics, and he was totally cool with it. Just said he’d be out driving from 8AM to 5PM, so I came back after 5PM and got these photos with my iPhone.

Google Maps Car Door Magnet
Google Maps Car
Mobile Car Mounted Camera
Here’s a close up view of what must be the camera. Looks like the official camera case is a sock. Maybe if I see the driver again, I’ll ask … “what’s under the sock?”.

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Top and Rack with Topcon PG-A1
A closer view of the GPS antenna, a Topcon PG-A1, positioned at the back of the roof rack.

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Bottom of Topcon PG-A1
And a close up view of the bottom of that GPS antenna.

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Inside of the Google Maps Car
Here’s a view of the interior of the Google Maps Car, showing the monitor/ display unit in front of the the passenger seat. If you look closely, you can see that the display is actually being held up by a spare tire and a 2×4, with a notebook wedged in-between for more support. I wonder if this particular car is just broken, or if this is the standard setup in all the Google maps cars.

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Verizon Wireless USB720 unit
Finally, here’s a picture I took through the rear window of the car, showing the Verizon Wireless USB720 EVDO Rev A USB Modem that the car uses for its connection to the Internet.

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Closeup of Verizon Wireless USB720
A close-up view of the USB720.

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Back of Google Maps Chevy Cobolt

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Finally, here are some pictures I found here showing the whole fleet of Google Maps Cars.
Google Maps Fleet
Google Maps Fleet 2

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30 Responses to “Google Maps Street View Car (moved)”

  1. Soeren Sprogoe Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 5:52 am

    Looks more to me like it’s the guy’s private car with a kit strapped onto it and a sticker smacked on the side, and not an “official” GoogleMobile.

    But quite interesting! I wonder of much time it takes from the car films something, to it actually appears on Google.



  2. B Jones Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 8:22 am

    I know. It does look pretty home made, with the tire and 2×4 monitor mount, and commercially available parts, but I added a few more pictures at the bottom showing the entire fleet. You can see that it’s the same car.



  3. Mapper99 Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Awesome post!



  4. Hatebreed Fan Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    what exactly is displayed on the monitor? is it just for internet use or does it display a map of every street that needs to be covered?



  5. B Jones Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 10:08 pm

    I’d imagine it’s probably just a video monitor. That’s just my guess. I do wonder what the numbers are for though.



  6. David Says:
    February 29th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Nice.

    Too bad most of the addresses in Chicago don’t match the right houses.



  7. Jack Says:
    March 1st, 2008 at 7:03 am

    I saw a Google car in Sydney (Australia) near my work. I just smiled and waved :)



  8. Dave Bascom Says:
    March 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am

    It’s amazing how much of the country they’ve got street views for now. Just another step towards indexing everything in the world. I heard rumors that their next project will be to sneak into the home of every citizen of the planet earth while they’re sleeping and download their memories and knowledge. It’s called Google Brains. It’s currently in beta, of course.



  9. Geld Lenen Says:
    March 1st, 2008 at 10:27 am

    The Google logo looks like it is a bit misplaced. Nice to see that the guy let you take pictures anyway! :)



  10. Samsara Says:
    March 6th, 2008 at 6:51 am

    If he’s covering the whole state does this mean he is going to drive down every single road, circle and rural dirt path in S.C.?

    I don’t know how that works.



  11. B Jones Says:
    March 6th, 2008 at 8:59 am

    @Samsara
    The day I took these pictures was the last day he worked. When I talked to the driver the night before, I didn’t ask him how thoroughly he was covering the sate, but I wish I had. He did say that the day I took the pictures was his last day, and that he was finished with the job.



  12. Bostonian Says:
    March 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am

    Interesting…here on the East Coast, the Google Street View cars are black Volkswagen Beetles, and the mount on top of the car is more impressive (it looked like they used multiple cameras). This is based on a car I saw in Boston.



  13. bob Says:
    March 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    thats funny..that rigging is fairly ghetto. I work in graphic printing and display and thats called an octanorm system. Its basically a series of custom size cut alluminum beams and they are usually used to frame out a display booth. Not what I would use to mount a camera onto a car but whatever!



  14. wherewillwhy Says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 1:08 am

    wow wonder if they will map my city for once bastards but non the less kool



  15. szuman Says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 3:45 am

    so.. discreet ;)



  16. KG Says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 4:53 am

    It looks like you are missing point…with geo-referencing of the data (images, etc). First of all you are using only GPS and it won’t work in urban environments, it will give you some set of coordinates but they will be of with 10-50 …or more metres. This system look like home made prototype for home made application and if Google wish to have it looks like they do not now much about positioning of the data or they will link the images manually. I hope it is not one more propaganda approach …if you wish to do it right you need to have GPS/INS integration + Kalman filtering + full link to GIS road database. I suggest to ook for references. Recently all Istanbul old city was done like this + with 3D laser scanning over 50 000 buildings and 400 km of streets were done this way… beside this over 50 000 km of streets in North and Central Europe. Anyway, good luck! KG



  17. Guy Says:
    March 18th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

    What I want to know is why I can’t find a job listed on GoogleJobs for driving one of these! For someone who loves driving, it sounds like the ideal job!



  18. DV Says:
    August 24th, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Weird, seeing that Charleston is the only larger city in SC that doesn’t have streetview as of now (6 months after this post)… Maybe it was the last to get done (?)



  19. B Jones Says:
    August 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    @DV
    Yeah, I’m wondering what’s taking so long myself. Maybe it’s an issue of processing data.

    @Guy
    The driver said that he found the job via a temp agency, not through Google.



  20. Charles Grant Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    First off. Very impressive. Second, I would just like to comment on how curious you made me! I scanned different towns, looking for mirroring( if that’s a word), windows to see if I could catch a glimpse of the car(s) creating these images. Finally, on the Hutchinson river Pkwy, ( pelham, Ny), I got a view of the top of the car. Other than that, I’d see shadows of the pole that seems to hold the camera.
    Lastly….. are you guys hiring? I would love, love, love to do something like that.

    Very good work!

    C. Grant



  21. Chompy Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

    Yes, we’re hiring stupid.



  22. Lekter Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    I wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post this article. I was very curious about the whole google streetview thingy and how it worked. Now I can share what I learned from this article this with other people. Godd job B. Jones.



  23. B Jones Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    Thanks Lekter.
    I’m glad you liked it.



  24. McJanus Says:
    September 9th, 2008 at 5:35 am

    Very very interesting post. I particularly appreciated the references you provided and the comments added by visitors. All this proved very interesting in getting to know more the streetview system (even though it has recently been upgraded to an other one). Keep on the tracking effort ;)



  25. MG Says:
    September 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    I wonder, when will we spot Google StreetView cars here in Canada.



  26. KB Says:
    October 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am

    Just saw the car on my way to work this morning in Minneapolis, MN. Very interesting…



  27. DV Says:
    November 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am

    November, and still no Street view for Charleston. :(



  28. B Jones Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    No love for charleston :( I noticed too with the iphone update.



  29. DV Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 9:16 am

    Yay – Chucktown got it finally! :)



  30. B Jones Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 9:28 am

    Woot! It’s about time. :)



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