Google has squeezed the power of Street View cars into a cute 15-pound camera

Fifteen years after Street View began as a wild idea at Google to create a 360-degree map of the world, the feature is more important than ever for the Google Maps product. The images collected by the Street View camera are an important part of Google’s mapping efforts and are laying the groundwork for other Google operations Immersive features.

On Tuesday, Google launches a new, relatively compact camera that will help the company continue its efforts to maintain an up-to-date image in essentially every corner of the planet.

Typically, Google collects high-resolution Street View photos with a camera attached to the top of a car. Google’s Street View cars have enough handling electronics to fill the backseat.

The new camera “takes advantage of all the power, resolution and processing power of our entire Street View system… [and has] compressed it into something the size of a big, happy cat,” Google’s Steve Silverman told reporters.

The device can be held in one hand, weighing less than 15 pounds. It has a total of seven cameras and it offers 140 megapixels in every panorama. Google also has the ability to add Lidar to the device, to capture details like road markings or potholes.

New equipment built on Pedestrians in Street Viewa backpack-mounted camera that Google first introduced in 2012. That system helps Google collect images of indoor spaces and other places that cars can’t go — even under the ocean and into spatial.

“The hardware we build has to work in a number of complex environments, such as the extreme conditions we may encounter,” says Silverman. “These include environments like the cold of the Arctic, the heat at the edge of volcanoes, and around the Brazilian boulders.”

Google’s new camera is designed to be attached to any car with a roof rack and is controlled by a mobile device. The company is currently testing the camera and will launch it in 2023.

To date, Google has collected 220 billion Street View images from more than 100 countries and regions. Google collects images of the same locations over and over again to ensure that they are up to date. On the desktop version of Google Maps, users can view Historical Street View to see how streets have changed over the years. Starting Tuesday, Maps users on Android and iOS devices will also be able to see Historical Street View. When viewing a Street View image of a place, tap anywhere on the photo to view information about the place. Then, tap “See more days” to see historical images Google has published of the place, since Street View launched in 2007.