Google Street View camera + low bridge = uh-oh
There are any number of amusements to be found on Google Maps, candid images of the world captured by Google's car-mounted cameras, but I couldn't resist passing this one along.
It looks as if southbound on Merchant Street in Pittsburgh, Pa., is a lousy spot to have a camera mounted on a stalk on the roof of your car.
Open the link above and click the forward arrows. You can watch as the car heads toward the low-clearance bridge, then see the view go askew, then see it corrected again, apparently because the camera was remounted correctly.
Or you can watch the drama unfold in the screenshots below.
Google Sightseeing, which collects entertaining Street View moments, also found this case of a Street View car getting stuck in the mud in Australia.
(Via Paul Buchheit.)
Here comes the bridge.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Whack. The camera no longer points forward.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Now the camera flopped backward to show to the car's rear window.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Whew! The camera is restored to its rightful position.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
It's highly doubtful that anyone at Google could possibly review all Street View images prior to cataloging. These images are tagged automatically with GPS location & compass direction among a few other things I'm sure. It's simply a matter of dumping the photos into the database. It's also possible that the images are simply added to the database as they're acquired perhaps via a wireless or cellular data connection.
As far as the "incident" mentioned in this story: I'm not familiar with all the physical specifications of a Google contractor but isn't it entirely possible that the camera mast was automatically retracted? Seriously, I don't think a camera whacking into a steel bridge at even only several miles per hour is going to be taking too many pictures afterwards.
Plus there's no sense driving around with an upright camera stalk while traveling from the office to the various planned survey areas.
Good thing that mast is flexible.
For this to have occurred they way it's written, you'd have to believe the masts and heavy cameras are mounted to large spring pivots like old floppy CB whip antennas. Then this very sensitive 11-lens electronic GPS camera struck a solid steel girder at 5, 10, or 20 MPH without any apparent malfunction. Then it must have scraped along the underside of the bridge all the while not catching on gaps between girders ripping it from the top of the car. Then after emerging on the other side, it magically popped back up into the correct position and continued snapping pictures. Impossible.
The masts are not flexible otherwise you'd get unstable imagery flopping all around especially at high speed or windy days. Subsequent frames would not line up with each other.
This camera did not strike the bridge and mysteriously pop back up again unscathed. Anyone with fold-away side-view mirrors knows how much damage they can sustain even after slow speed impact with solid objects.
- by garngadzooks April 21, 2009 4:45 PM PDT
- Looks like the car used in the UK had a lower camera. It fitted upright under this bridge in Darnick Street, Glasgow, at 8' 6":
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(8 Comments)http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=55.875877,-4.213976&spn=0,359.991717&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=55.875954,-4.214059&panoid=u8icI3thUe5BYZNzjh9K6g&cbp=12,163.90538888106875,,0,5.699481865284975