The internet search leader launched Google's Street View feature – already available in more than 100 countries - across 10 cities in India, enabling users to get a 360-degree view of any iconic destination, restaurant or street.
This comes after it announced plans to capture street-level images in 2011 but had to stop the process in 2016 after the government restricted it citing security issues. Google, which typically collects street-level images through cars and bikes fitted with cameras, is offering the service in partnership with Tech Mahindra.
The service has gone live in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar. The feature, available under Google Maps, is expected to help real estate companies and travel firms as well as aid in better navigation for users.
According to India’s geospatial policy, released last year, geospatial data of a spatial accuracy/value that is below one meter horizontally and three meters vertically can be collected only by entities controlled by Indian citizens.
“This is the first time in the world that Google Street View is being brought to life completely by local partners,” Miriam Daniel, Vice President - maps experiences, Google said. “They (the partners) have covered 150,000 kilometers in India. We plan to expand this to 50 cities by the end of this year.”
Google Maps will also show information on speed limits shared by traffic authorities, starting with Bengaluru and Chandigarh. It will also provide information on road closures and incidents on Google Maps across eight cities, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Agra, to help people avoid congestion zones.
The US-based technology behemoth has also collaborated with the Central Pollution Control Board to make authoritative air quality information available on Google Maps. Users will be able to access this information by tapping the ‘Layers’ button at the top right and selecting the ‘Air Quality’ option.
Daniel said Google would publish Street View’s Application programming Interface to local partners. Its API has been available to global partners for a while. Genesys International's partnership with Google is intended to increase the range of Street View to 1 million km by the end of the year. Tech Mahindra will be the logistics service provider for Google.
