Google street view for India to be back

Srikanth
4 Min Read

Google Street View feature in Google Maps will allow its users to visualize and navigate the streets through panoramic street-level images of cities. This feature is finally going to make a return to India. This feature faced various denials, and after a long wait, the feature got permission for a full-scale launch in 2016. Google made this announcement in a press release that was held in New Delhi that mentioned that Google is bringing Street View to India in collaboration with Genesys and Tech Mahindra.

The functionality will have 360-degree panoramic images, which will be available in 10 Indian cities on the initial basis, which will cover 150,000 kilometres of roads. The motive of Google behind the same is to expand the feature to 50 cities by the end of FY22. Being a part of the initiative, Tech Mahindra will deploy SUVs that will be equipped with cameras for crowded places. The proposal for the launch of Google Street View in the country was rejected by the government back in the year 2016 due to certain security reasons.

The Street View functionality on Google Maps is going to cover the range of 150,000 kilometres of roads over the cities named Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.

The collection of data will be carried out by the local partners, as confirmed by Google, adding that the Street View API will be handled by the local developers. India is the first country ever where Street View has been enabled primarily by partners. The program is based on the new National Geospatial Policy that was introduced in February last year, and it permitted domestic companies to collect the data and modern mapping technologies.

As per the policy guidelines, Indian entities are free to collect and publish geospatial data that also includes maps. Though Street View surveys are permitted only for Indian companies, foreign companies can license them from Indian entities to serve their customers who are sitting in India. The data required would be available through APIs within India. Based on this, Google will facilitate the license to the imagery data for Street View with Tech Mahindra and Genesys.

On Google Maps, Street View can make accessed by zooming in on the road in any of the target cities and tapping the area you want to see. The feature will display the local cafes, cultural hotspots, and also local neighbourhoods. The proper utilization of the Google Earth engine is going to facilitate the surface temperature data as well.

The latest Google Street View Camera (introduced at Google I/O) could come to India as well, even though they are not using their own vehicles. As mentioned by Google’s Data Operations Product Manager Stafford Marquardt, they would love to bring an immersive view to India as well, but the company has not made any decision regarding anything. Since it utilizes 3D data and aerial view, they will probably have to do similar collaborations to bring it to the country.

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