A mini guide on using Google Maps’ Street View feature

The Street View emerges with a single tap after opening Google Maps. Zooming into any designation or area of target cities and further, clicking on it would simply do the job. Street View helps in navigating and exploring the local hotspots, cafes, and destinations around every nuke and corner of the country.

The visual representation of local streets provides a holistic and accurate way of reaching places. With the support of Google Earth Engine, surface temperature data can be traced as well.

India becomes the first country to enable Street View, entirely by partners. Google has collaborated with Genesys and Tech Mahindra to launch it. The 360-degree panoramic view will be available only in 10 major cities across Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Nashik, Vadodara, Amritsar, and Ahmednagar. It covers 150,000 kilometers of roads.

With the aim of further expansion, the tech giant plans to expand this feature to 50 Indian cities. The Street View API will also be available to local developing platforms so that they can deliver better mapping experiences within their services and apps.

As per the policy guidelines, Indian entities can collect and publish geospatial data. Foreign companies need to license the data from Indian companies, in order to serve their Indian customer. The framework has been based on the new National Geospatial Policy which was introduced in 2021.

Miriam Daniel, Vice President, Google Maps Experiences said, the feature of Street View will eventually, blur out the license plates and faces of individuals, keeping the privacy issues in mind.

The tech giant has also announced a partnership with India’s Central Pollution Control Board. This partnership will work together to provide information on air quality over maps.

As a part of the collaboration, Tech Mahindra will set to deploy cameras equipped in SUVs for crowded places.

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