Get yourself in the Apple Maps street view pictures as camera vans visit
If you want to get yourself in the street view images used for the maps app on iPhones, now is your chance. Apple has sent a team of white vans around the Isle of Wight to take pictures for the street view setting and collect data for the maps app. They were seen in Ryde today and Newport yesterday. It is understood that they expected to be here for around three days. Armed with a quartet of LiDAR, four arrays of stereoscopic cameras facing front, rear, left and right, as well as powerful GPS/GLONASS satellite antennae and a plumb line to measure vertical tilt, Apple Maps vehicles are capable of mapping an environment in three-dimensional detail – upping the ante compared to Google’s Streetview service that offers more rudimentary 360º surround footage. Apple states that its vehicles are driving around to “collect data which will be used to improve Apple Maps. Some of this data will be published in future Apple Maps updates.” Previously, Apple Maps vehicles had been seen travelling around parts of the US and UK. The new sighting may indicate Apple is closer to rolling out a ‘Streetview’ service similar to Google Maps’ offering. In a bid to alleviate privacy concerns while making the potential use of the collected data directly comparable to Google’s competing service, Apple states that, “we will blur faces and licence [number] plates on collected images prior to publication”.
