Google Maps just cemented one colossal advantage over Apple Maps

Google has just given millions of Google Maps users a little bit of trivia that shows its exponential growth since its debut back in 2005. The US giant has announced it’s collected over 10 million miles of Street View imagery. That’s enough to circle Earth more than 400 times in case you were wondering…

That figure puts Google leagues ahead of its rival Apple, which only launched its Street View equivalent – known as Look Around – when iOS 13 arrived back in September. At the moment, Look Around only works in San Francisco… so if you live anywhere else in the world, you’re out of luck.

That said, Google Maps’ Street View launched back in 2007, meaning the American firm has had over 10 years to scour the globe for road data.

So how exactly has Google gathered so much Street View information? Well, the firm recently detailed its methods in a blog post.

Google said: “Gathering imagery is no small task. It can take anywhere from days to weeks, and requires a fleet of Street View cars, each equipped with nine cameras that capture high-definition imagery from every vantage point possible.

“These cameras are a-thermal, meaning that they’re designed to handle extreme temperatures without changing focus so they can function in a range of environments – from Death Valley during the peak of the summer to the snowy mountains of Nepal in the winter. Each Street View car includes its own photo processing centre and lidar sensors that use laser beams to accurately measure distance.

“There’s also the Street View trekker, a backpack that collects imagery from places where driving isn’t possible. These trekkers are carried by boats, sheep, camels, and even scout troops to gather high-quality photos from multiple angles, often in some of the hardest-to-map places around the world.

“In 2019 alone, Street View images from the Google Maps community have helped us assign addresses to nearly seven million buildings in previously under-mapped places like Armenia, Bermuda, Lebanon, Myanmar, Tonga, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe.”

Google was also keen to explain how Street View has evolved over time. Most recently, the American firm started using data from Street View for a new Google Maps feature called Live View.

Available now on iOS and Android, Live View is basically an augmented reality (AR) feature for Maps that presents users with virtual directions to make navigation easier. It’s especially useful when the app’s orientation isn’t correct and you need to know which way to start walking.

In its most recent blog post, the American firm also touched on Google Earth it claims now covers more than 98 percent of the world’s population.

As a quick reminder, Google Earth is slightly different to Google Maps because it renders the world in 3D at leverages satellite image data from third-parties rather than just Google itself.

source: express.co.uk