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Google Tricycles To Map Footpaths For Street View
CNETNate writes "To advance its Street View service this summer, Google is poised to unleash the unstoppable power of human legs. Google will deploy pedal-powered tricycles — the company calls them 'Google Trikes' — mounted with 360 degree Street View cameras to map areas inaccessible by its fleet of Street View cars." The article indicates that the trikes will first see use in the UK, to map out public walking paths, but one anonymous commenter said: "This must be bogus — you are not allowed to cycle on public footpaths in the UK, I can't believe Google would have overlooked such a fundamental fact. Not to mention that the vehicle pictured wouldn't fit down most paths." PC World features the trikes in Rome.
I believe you meant "lose" http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/lose.html
Regardless of whether Google is going to use Tricycles, they're not the first to market with this feature. http://www.mapjack.com/ already has many many trails mapped out, things that bicycles may even have a hard time on.
I don't want my house, garden, neighborhood and face plastered all over the web for everyone to gawk at. You don't want it. Nobody wants it.
I kinda want it.
My guess is that it will give Google access to the many urban streets which only allow taxis, public buses, emergency vehicles, and bicycles during the day. This is extremely common.
I think you're correct there. For instance, most of Oxford Street (London) isn't on Streetview because it's buses/taxis/cycles only.
They can also do public squares, pedestrian/cycling-only streets etc. They can even do no-cycling areas if they wheel the tricycle.
They already did!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
One could even argue that not designing the project to allow disabled individuals to perform the work is job discrimination.
I suppose one could, but one would be wrong. The job description is for someone to pedal this bike around so it can take pictures. Therefore, being able to pedal said bike is a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ). Your idea is interesting, but failing to implement it is not discriminatory on Google's part, at least not in any legally recognized way.
Here is an example of a typical countryside UK footpath. I would defy one to navigate it on a tricycle: http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/footpathexample.html
or this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mapmakermike/1029015477/
Maybe if they built a large wooden badger...
When they said paths, I at first thought of a path into/through the woods...not a public place like mentioned in the article.
You were right to think that - 'footpaths' in the UK are often in the countryside, or along canals or through parks etc. When they are in a city, they often were there before the city; very old routes that have been public pathways for centurys. The laws governing them and right-of-way on them go right back to medieval times.