With the Google Maps Streetview platform, the world got a whole lot smaller 15 years ago: suddenly all users could explore distant places, landscapes, streets and sights with a mouse click or on their smartphone. To make this possible, Google repeatedly sends Street View vehicles onto the street, which are equipped with numerous cameras and record all the details. So it’s good to know how Street View works and how it (still) looks in Germany.
Google Maps Streetview has not been updated in Germany for well over ten years and it is not foreseeable if and when this will ever change. A glimmer of hope last year, unfortunately, had no substance. Nevertheless, the vehicles were again on the road in all German federal states in 2020 and 2021 to photograph larger and smaller streets. However, these recordings are only used for internal purposes and other features but are not published as image material in Google Maps Street View.
The situation in Germany
Every day thousands of German users use Google Maps and we want to make sure that you can find your way to the places whenever you want. In order to do this, we need to be sure to use the correct street names, street signs, routing, and information about businesses and other places of interest to you. That’s why we have resumed trips through large parts of Germany.
We know there is a lot of interest in our camera cars. These are the same cars we’ve used to capture images for Street View in the past. For future trips, however, we will only use the image material to improve Google Maps and have no plans to publish it.
For a long time now, the only way to get new recordings in Germany has only been through the recordings of the users who upload them to the platform. Official material can probably only be expected again when politicians (who else?) approach Google directly. But that won’t happen anytime soon…
The Google Maps team not only revealed how things will continue in Germany, namely not at all, but also outlined the rough process from the recording to the finished picture some time ago:
- Taking pictures: First of all we have to drive through the locations and take pictures of them to be able to show them in Street View. When and where we drive depends on many factors, such as the weather and the population density of the different areas. After all, we always want to take the best pictures.
- Align images: Sensors are attached to the car that measures the GPS location, speed and direction of travel. We relate the received signals to each other in order to assign each image to the correct geographic location on the map. This allows us to better reconstruct the car’s exact route, and even tilt and reorient the images as needed.
- From photo to 360 degree shot: The images are taken by cameras that are side by side and overlap slightly. They are then stitched together into a single 360° shot. This is how we avoid gaps. Then we apply special algorithms for image processing, with which the transitions are processed in such a way that they are no longer recognizable as far as possible.
- Always the right image: Based on the speed at which the car’s three lasers are reflected from surfaces, we determine how far away a building or object is. This data enables us to create 3D models from it. If you move the mouse to a point in the distance, the optimal panorama of this place will be displayed in this 3D model.