Google Street View comes to South Africa
Prius like this, equiped with 3-D cameras, will do the neccesary driving in order to capture images for Street View.
Google this week announced that it will begin imagery collection in South Africa for the Street View feature in its Google Maps.
Street View allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. This means that people interested in visiting a town will be able to take a virtual tour, for example.
You can also check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, or get a helping hand with the kids’ geography homework. House hunters can save time by exploring properties and their surrounding area in advance and also by looking up driving directions.
In the coming weeks Google will begin driving around South Africa and taking photographs of locations, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban. These 3-D images will then be stitched together into a comprehensive, explorable map. The maps are to be finished and uploaded before the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Toyota South Africa have partnered with Google and provided them with several hybrid Prius vehicles with which to capture the images. These have very low emissions, and will therefore have minimal environmental impact.
William Price, Global Manager for e-Marketing Tourism South Africa, said that from the perspective of South African Tourism, it is well-known that travel; exploration; and adventure go hand-in-hand with mapping. “In anticipation and preparation for 2010, we welcome every opportunity to try and get people making decisions overseas that are as deep and as rich as possible,” Price said, adding that Street View will be a key tool for international visitors.
For more information on Street View and its uses, visit www.google.co.za/help/maps/streetview/faq.html.
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