Google Street View Celebrates 15 Years With New Camera

Google Street View is celebrating 15 years of mapping by upgrading to a new camera and allowing us to easily travel back in time using our smartphones.

New Street View Camera

We've all spotted at least one Google Street View car over the last decade and a half, but the company can't always rely on four wheels and an engine to collect high-quality images.

"From the back of a camel in the Arabian desert to a snowmobile zipping through the Arctic, we've gotten creative with the ways we've used Street View cameras to capture imagery," Ethan Russell, director of product for Google Maps, wrote in a blog announcement. "And if there's one thing we've learned, it's that our world changes at lightning speed. Our hardware is one way we're able to keep up with the pace."

In addition to the Street View car and Trekker backpack, Google is piloting a new ultra-transportable, mobile-controlled camera system roughly the size of a house cat. Weighing less than 15 pounds, the new camera can be shipped anywhere and attached to any vehicle with a roof rack. It's expected to roll out next year "in fun Google colors."

Travel Back in Time

Street View has supported a "time travel" feature since 2014, but Google says it's now easier to peruse a location over time on its Android and iOS apps. Mobile users browsing images of a location can tap "See more dates" to view "historical" imagery—dating back to Street View's 2007 launch. Depending on how far back Google started capturing mapping data for the location you are viewing, a range of dated images should pop-up for you to experience an area how it used to be. This could be especially surprising for areas of the world that have undergone major changes either by design or world events.

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Google uses computer vision and AI to fuse together billions of Street View and aerial images to create a digital model of the world. Moving forward, that model will get even more intuitive with the upcoming immersive view feature that lets users explore a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant, or popular venue before visiting.

To join the birthday celebrations, tap the Google Maps chevron when in driving mode to make your navigation icon a Street View car; and look for the desktop app's Pegman, decked out in a birthday hat and balloons.

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