The Presidio of San Francisco, on the northern waterfront to the left of the newly upscale Ghirardelli Square, hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving infraction this morning. Oh noes! Don’t impede this car – it’s gone to some interesting places. It’s not scary at all, right?
So the photo below shows how the magic of Google Street View happens – you can see their method all laid out. In this case, Google is using a brand-spanking-new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid (wouldn’t a 50-state VW Jetta TDI diesel get better mileage?) and a rather tall metal mast with mad cameras, GPSes and SICK laser range finders. Click to expand:
Courtesy of damianspain of the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks Damian! Check out his flickrstream for lots of great shots of San Francisco, including a rare blue sky at the North Beach Festival.
(Normally, the Presidio is a quiet place, except for people feuding over the location of the new CAMP museum and the occasional coyote attack. And Hooverball - the kids these days make all sorts of noise throwing their old school medicine balls around.)
Keep up the good work, Google Street View drivers. Just make sure to watch out for The Man (as well as all those sexy pedestrians trying to catch your attention).
[Update: National Park Service employee and Commenter #67 Motorcop_2000 disputes any account that has the Googler getting a ticket. MC_2K indicates that this driver merely got lost and was trying to get "back to the Avenues" (meaning the Richmond or the Sunset districts). Bad driving and Toyota Priuseses seem to go together, so this story rings true.]
[Update #2: Motorcop_2000's story is confirmed - no ticket issued. The USPP routinely note the license plate of any motorist they deal with, apparently. Anyway, no points for this Googler's DMV printout.]
Tags: california, google, hybrid, infraction, maps, motocycle, motorcycle, park police, police, presidio, prius, routine stop, San Francisco, street view, streetview, ticket, toyota, United States
This photo actually reveals a new component of their sensor array – they are capturing 3D Point Clouds in addition to video! Those aren’t GPS’s, they’re Laser Range Finders.
http://www.byetman.com/2008/06/17/google-street-view-car-busted-in-more-ways-than-one/
lincmercguy, shut up you quear
@Jeremy – yes, i’ve seen one very similar driving around melbourne.
I dont think its right that map companies make maps showing the street where my house is. I live on the street and its wrong.
Interestingly none of the hardware on the pole is even similar-looking to that which I saw in Christchurch NZ 5 months ago: http://drupal.geek.nz/blog/google-camera-car-detail
saw this, at about 8:30ish am on 280 heading north this morning.
seen a couple of them. and they have a varied fleet from old vans to newer vehicles as this.
Great!
may be the height issue!
“more than allowed height!”
[...] Note: History of Firefox Mac Classic DreamHouse GoogleCar gets Ticket Cosmopolitan Doesn’t Care about [...]
Well, I hope we get to see this episode while were’re flying around GoogleEarth.
Question: The article states that the Google car has “gone to some interesting places” and links to a page on Presidio Terrace. But from there it doesn’t seem like I can get Google street view to go inside Presidio Terrace, or am I missing something? Did the all the rich folks in that neighborhood happen to get their mansions de-”street viewed”??
The United States Park Police vs. the Google Maps Car San Francisco’s Presidio…
The Presidio of San Francsico hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starrring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving in…
Actually we don’t have street view in canada because its too big and not enough people the cost is prohibitive it has nothing to do with laws.
I think it’s fine that Google is doing this. They’re not actually taking pictures FROM the private property, but rather OF it.
Oh my gosh, it’s a story about Google – mental masturbation time!
@dai no its not a height issue you can have a vehicle up to 14 ft tall before you would need a oversize permit
rv’s are taller than that car with the pole and they dont get tickets or need special permits for height
As I understand it, you can photograph/film anything you can see from the street, however: you cannot sell it without consent of the people pictured if they are recognizeable, unless it is a news-like production, in which case you can sell it as news.
lol — donuts, you’re funny!
google car was lost .. go figure! directions back to the avenues were given.
As for “privacy issues” well, privacy or not, the National Park Service requires permits for “commercial” film shoots … video or still. Wonder if they had one … driver didn’t have one in the car.
Phone numbers for the permit offices were given, as were directions back to the avenues from the heart of the Presidio.
By the way … photo is not manufactured. It was taken and posted by someone who didn’t know the whole and complete story … way to go internet!
Besides the issue of personal vs. private property permissions, doesn’t anybody get the Big Picture of why we should be worried? While it’s great to have this feature (to scope out a place you haven’t seen), the implications of Big Brother are HUGE! The saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions” is totally applicable to all the ways this will feed into a massive database about everybody and everything that could totally be used for all the wrong reason…And no, I’m not paranoid or into conspiracy theories…but all our technology is pointing us down that road…
Teri, I would agree in saying that new technology such as this require ever more focus on balancing right and wrong. Technology certianly enables such things as centralized databasing that could be used for good or bad. Centralized databases underpin the basis for credit checks… but at the same time can be used by identity theives. Government can use the same technology to either identify potential criminal or terrorist activity (think money laundering and illicit funds transfers) or it can be used to violate consitutional privacy of individuals.
But technology isn’t the problem… it is corrupt and/or ill-intentioned behaviors that lead us to a “Big Brother” situation. Technology, after all, has allowed the US to become an even more transparent society and helps expose corporate fraud and government abuses. And that is a good thing (unless you were one of those caught!).
If you are worried about US or State Government becoming Big Brother… I wouldn’t worry just yet. Hell, they still can’t even pull together all their “super-secret” databases even 7 years after 9/11. I’d be much more worried about those credit card and marketing companies… they are the ones I don’t trust to protect my information as if it were their own…..
Do you know how much diesel costs? Jetta my ass!
Yes, I know how much diesel costs.
The thing is that the Euros can’t get enough of the stuff, so the prices for ‘Mericans is now higher than gasoline.
But Doktor Diesel’s juice has more energy per unit volume and it’s used more efficiently, so diesel be cheaper overall to operate.
In NorCal, some Prius drivers are rewarded by being able to use the carpool lane, so they zip along at 80 per. Oh well. A TDI Jetta would easily get better mileage on the freeway.
This thread reminded me of a joke I heard years ago; I can’t recall exactly but an old lady was offended about neighbors’ activities, they moved somewhere else in their yard at police insistence, old neighbor complains again, “you can’t possibly see them now,” punch line was “…With my binoculars, I can!” I discovered Google Street View for the first time today by accident and when I panned as if I were standing on the street in front of my house (albeit from more than 3 years ago judging from the photos), I was alarmed, impressed, incredulous… looking at the whole US in street view shows you what urban centers have already been captured. My childhood home? No. Most of my friends and family now? Yes. What’s the sound of shuddering while applauding Google?
If the street views are archivable they have a gret deal of potential for historic preservation research. They are an efficient way to capture context across a broad area. Cool stuff that I thought of before google, but couldn’t afford a pile of cameras to duct tape onto my car.
The driver got lost? maybe he should have gone to maps.google.com to pull up the directions
thats what i always do 
And wondering how can one “get lost” with all those heavy GPSes
the park presidio police are also known to set up illegal road blocks in the late hours of the weekend to catch you if your returning from a party. they park their cars in the middle of the street on a turn with nothing but their tail lights on. then on their report they lie and say they have their amber overhead flashers on which really bums me out that police will go so low as to lie about their own failure to follow procedures all the while citing you to the maximum extent of the law. yes i’m guilty of a .09 and i made a bad call but my driving was safe that night as i had already driven along side a sfpd motorcycle cop for 2 blocks who saw no reason to pull me over based on my driving. and then you face federal court and federal laws which are different than californias. and did i mention i was only 100 yards from my driveway? f@cked in the presidio.
I almost ran my motorcycle into one of these cars on my street they have bad drivers