Google Street View car seen taking pictures in Baton Rouge lately

BATON ROUGE – Google appears to be updating the Street View images of Baton Rouge.

At least one roving vehicle with the now iconic camera fixed to a pole sticking from its roof has been seen around the Mid City area. First, last week then again on Tuesday.

A Hyundai with the camera on its roof was seen going up and down Government Street and side streets. Google has not responded to an email from WBRZ asking for specifics about the route or plans for the updated imagery. When using the Street View feature on Google’s website, a timestamp reports the last images for Street View scenes in the Mid City area were captured in June 2018.

An easy and random search of Baton Rouge streets shows updated Street View images across the parish were captured between 2016 and 2018. In some neighborhoods, flood debris is still seen along the curbs in neighborhoods where the Google car recorded images in the weeks and months after the August 2016 flood.

A feature in Street View also lets users return to previous years’ images – some dating back to 2008.

Google Street View has been around since 2007, logging more than 10 million miles of roads and scenery, according to a Wired.com article from December 2017 highlighting a NASA scientist’s newly-designed camera for Google – the first upgrade to the Street View camera system since 2009.

Wired highlighted the program’s history, too – reporting Street View cars, as of the end of 2017, had snapped more than 80 billion photos in 85 countries. The idea for the system itself is traced back to Google’s founding when CEO Larry Page videotaped a drive around San Francisco. Test cars hit the road in 2006 and launched publicly the following year.

The cars snap 360-degree pictures, letting users walk down the street and look around.

The car seen in Baton Rouge has California license plates. It is not clear how long it will be photographing Baton Rouge streets.

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