Pistachio Monkey

Was walking back from the Tate modern today when i saw this Astra parked up on the side of the road. It had Google Maps decals on the side of the vehicle and seen as though the driver was’nt to busy i thought i would ask him some questions

He said that the mapping of London was nearly complete and that he expects the data to be fully mapped in the next couple weeks. This should mean that we can expect the street view applications to be live soon, weather that’s though a g Phone (android) or iphone i don’t know, probably both.

I asked him about confidentiality when tagging people and he said that he tries to avoid funerals (as he did this morning in Brixton) and other sorts of processions. He either drives around them or uses a pause function on the camera. He had a dell monitor in the foot well of the passenger seat which prompted him a review of what we being recorded, while the hunk of the machine sat in the boot. He also told me he didn’t work for Google but did have to have a special driving licence (racing and precision) in order to do the job. I asked him why the racing part, and he said that some of the youths in South London can get a little sketchy seeing camera’s driving about. he suggested they may have a shoot first and ask questions later attitude, and that he prays every morning that he faces no trouble on his trips.

Pretty interesting stuff, i suppose we see the app’s live soon with London being the first Mapped city and others to follow