The Mayo News

The future came to Achill yesterday, with the car collecting images for Street View in Google Maps turning heads
The Google car on Achill Island. Thanks to PaulaCoMayo for the picture.

Google cameras hit Achill


Edwin McGreal

THE future came to Achill recently with the bizarre Google car turning heads on the island.
This red Opel Astra with four cameras mounted on the roof, each pointing in different directions, is one of the many Google cars driving around Ireland at the moment to collect images for the Street View feature in the online Google Maps and Earth applications.
A sharp Mayo News reader spotted the car pulled into Lavelle’s Petrol Station in Achill.
The internet giants are aiming to collate images from all over Ireland so that, when finalised, people will be able to click on a map of anywhere in Ireland and get a panoramic ground level view of the streets and roads.
Work is at a much more advanced stage in the USA and the UK. Google has said it will be useful to many people, including those moving house who want to check out an area, or tourists wanting to get an idea of the places they will be visiting.
Some have welcomed the latest development, others have raised concerns about the privacy of the people Google has photographed.
“We will blur out people who can be identified in the photographs and will do likewise with car registration plates,” said Céline Crawford on behalf of Google. “If people are then unhappy that there house is captured, we can remove if it they want. It will be a great outlet for tourism, people will be able to see what a place is like before they visit.”
The ‘driving phase’ of the scheme was rolled out in March but no online launch date is available yet due to the reliance on a certain type of weather - little rain and little sun - for the imaging.

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