Google Deploys Street View Cameras on Trikes

Google Street View will soon include images of streets where cars aren’t allowed, thanks to a green and low-tech solution: mounting the cameras on a trike.

From Auto Blog Green via Groovy Green:

The three-wheeled, human-powered overgrown tricycles carry 250 pounds of ballast in the form of “a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry,” says the internet giant. All that extra heft reportedly requires a “specially trained super fit” rider.

Google’s new trikes will be deployed first in Genoa, Italy, this spring. Assuming that launch proves successful, Google will send its pedal-powered cameras to the United Kingdom, where they’ll point their lenses towards a slew of famous British landmarks. Have a good one in mind? Google says its open to suggestions and will be working with VisitBritain to pick the most desirable locations to shoot.

Of course, not everyone has taken kindly to being subjected to the all-seeing eye of Google, and being on a trike instead of in a vehicle makes these drivers vulnerable to angry Japanese and British people.  But, at least they’re not on foot like this guy.

Link [Auto Blog Green] via [Groovy Green]

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