Google Street View Trike Brings Street View to Sidewalks
Google unrolled a new collection of street-view images this week, their largest yet. The images were captured by the google Street View trike. While the Trike is not new, the images it has recently gathered are.
The Trike was designed by Google Engineer Daniel Ratner to capture images from locations around the world otherwise unattainable by Google’s Street View car. When it launched in 2009, Google demonstrated its abilities with images from Arastradero Open Preserve, and LEGOLand. To further promote the Trike, the Street View team held a location contest asking the public to suggest where the Street View trike should go. While all the location winners have not yet been captured and released, Rochester Institute of Technology certainly was happy to see the Google Trike peruse the campus.
Google actually has a fleet of Trikes, covering over major U. S. metropolitan areas and over 27 other countries. Google notes they don’t view them as replacements to the cars, simply a complimentary vehicle for capturing data. Google wants to extend Street View past public streets and into other areas the general public can’t go. Google is even asking owners of private property to allow the Trike to come and capture their land.
Google has already been in trouble numerous times in Europe for Street View. By asking private property owners for access, is Google going too far?