humantypo

Whilst looking up the address of my local DMV office (7700 W. El Segundo Boulevard, Hawthorne, CA) I came across a Google maps feature that I had not seen before: Street View. With a click on the little yellow avatar I was standing on El Segundo Blvd. looking at a gas station.

After the shock of being able to take a virtual drive up and down the street in front of the DMV office I started to wonder how in the world they got this footage. It isn’t traffic cameras because the angle is wrong and you can literally navigate up and down the street while looking side to side. After “driving” toward the beach for a bit I noticed the hood on the vehicle. Apparently Google has access to someone who drives around in cars with a multi-view camera of some sort. (Note to Google: don’t drive west after 3:00pm because most of your westbound footage will be a giant sunburst.)

Overall a pretty cool idea and a testament to continuous improvement on the whole maps thing. On the other hand, it’s time to start being more aware of how little privacy we will have in our “public” lives going forward.

I’m off to mow my lawn now in case today is the day the black car rolls by to immortalize my shrubbery.