Google Maps/Street View

[DavePEI]

Hi All:

Looked out the window a few minutes to see Google Maps Street View Vehicle driving by and back again... It is a white car with a gantry on top carrying the camera, etc. with a green Google Maps Street View sign on its side...

Just wondering - how many of you have noticed one of their cars in your area?


Dave

[AE_Collector]

I have seen the vehicles out on the road a couple of times before. Of course I used to drive around the city a lot with my job.

Terry

[twocvbloke]

Just wondering - how many of you have noticed one of their cars in your area?

I've not seen the google cars yet, but I have seen various similar cars with the cameras up top on a gantry, presumably doing the same sort of thing as google & their streetview...

I have been within 10 feet of one though, but I was indoors and didn't even know it had passed the house until I saw the house on streetview...

The local area round here is looking a bit dated on there though, so they may pass through again, but I won't be keeping my eyes out for them...

[DavePEI]

I have seen the vehicles out on the road a couple of times before. Of course I used to drive around the city a lot with my job.

Terry

Good thing he wasn't by ten minutes earlier - I had been outside wearing only a shirt and my shorts helping Linda in the door with the groceries! Last time they were in the area some years ago, they caught our next door neighbour bent over at the waist in her garden! We have teased her ever since then!

Dave

[AE_Collector]

The city of West Vancouver uses a similar looking vehicle wit hlarge cameras mounted on each side to catch parking violators! Rather than chalking tires to see if a vehicle has overstayed it's welcome, hey drive the streets with video camera's and computers that flash an alert to the city employee driving the vehicle whe nthey pass a vehicle that hasn't moved since they last drove by. License plate numbers etc aren't needed (until they start writing up the parking ticket) as the system is just comparing everything it sees to identify an area of the street where nothing has changed in too long of a time frame.

Terry

[Dennis Markham]

I was behind one of those cars in traffic just the other day.  Friends have reported seeing them from time-to-time as well.

[TelePlay]

Pulled into a gas station once right next to one of these filling up. The car had California license plates but the gas station was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The driver told me he goes through a couple of cars a year.

[TelePlay]

The city of West Vancouver uses a similar looking vehicle wit hlarge cameras mounted on each side to catch parking violators! Rather than chalking tires to see if a vehicle has overstayed it's welcome, hey drive the streets with video camera's and computers that flash an alert to the city employee driving the vehicle whe nthey pass a vehicle that hasn't moved since they last drove by. License plate numbers etc aren't needed (until they start writing up the parking ticket) as the system is just comparing everything it sees to identify an area of the street where nothing has changed in too long of a time frame.

Police cars capture and run every plate they can (automatically) to catch stolen cars, expired license cars or drivers with warrants out on them. Every time I'm at a light with a cop behind me, I'm watching what he/she is doing in my mirror and they always look down to check their on-board computer which "ran" my plate. I always wonder if they record date, time and location of scanned plate in some large database.

[twocvbloke]

I always wonder if they record date, time and location of scanned plate in some large database.

They probably do, the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system is just a whole database in itself, so they probably store all the details of the last sighting, just to make sure the car doesn't travel 1000 miles in 3 hours and does a bank job or something...

[DNO]

I see them once in a while.  A couple of months ago my wife and I were on the porch when one of these rolled by.  Google has yet to update the street view image of my house so I don't know if we'll be on public display or not!