Well some guys from NZ got talking with the driver of one of the Google Maps Street View cars, and snapped some photos for all to see. Have a look:

http://picasaweb.google.com/b.rudge/StreetViewCameraCarInChristchurchNZ

Whats interesting is the discussion that has happened on a message list regarding this, and how a car in wellington was seen taking its magnetic google sticker off the side of the car when it wasn't driving around...

Street View is definately coming to NZ though :D

The cameras being used:

Robert Coup to nz-20
2:52 PM (11 minutes ago)



On 09/01/2008, Bevan <b.rudgegmail.com> wrote:
>
> I got detail shots of 'whats under the bucket' just now:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/b.rudge/StreetViewCameraCarInChristchurchNZ/photo#5153267810010824834

it's a Point Grey Research Ladybug2: http://www.ptgrey.com/products/ladybug2/index.asp

The Ladybug2 is the next generation of spherical digital video cameras from Point Grey Research. The system has six cameras that enable the system to collect video from more than 75% of the full sphere, and an IEEE-1394b interface that allows streaming to disk at 30fps.

about US$10K worth of camera goodness (before the storage to actually do something with 30FPS).

Rob :)

Driving while watching a screen is an important source of accidents...

[Moved from "Google Maps Streetview in NZ" – Tony]

This morning, I was out for a walk and I saw coming down my street a car with a pole on its roof. As it came past, it had the Google Maps logo with the orange street view icon. On top of the pole was a little red thing which I assume was the camera... I've looked aound and it seems there are more of them here in Christchurch, New Zealand which makes it seems that Google is moving forward with their Streetview out of the US

Christchurch, New Zealand???
OK, I know that New Zealand is an important country, but I don't understand Google's choice. There is a Google Team in Australia, so this may be a reason, but there are also Google teams everywhere on Earth!
Christchurch has 330K inhabitants, this seems to be a big number but it's not.
I really don't understand Google's priorities...

I am thinking that with a smaller population, they can further refine techniques that will enable them to do this process a lot faster so that they can use these overseas. They may also be trying new technology out.

Also, they can say that they are the first mapping service in the world to do a full street view of all the major cities in a country.... lol