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Google has started updating Maps with the help of dash cam footage
- Google Maps is scanning dash cam footage to help it update things like changing speed limits.
- Footage is licensed from companies either gathering videos themselves, or sourced from manufacturers whose users have consented to sharing.
- Right now the program only appears to be active in the UK.
Google Maps has complied a positively bonkers amount of data. That includes not just mountains of imagery, from Street View to satellites, but databases storing information about all these streets themselves: tolls, one-way status, and more. And while all of that info adds up to making Google Maps as useful as it is, that’s also an overwhelming amount of info to have to keep up to date. Google is now trying out a new approach towards keeping some of that info current, although one that’s not going to be without a few privacy concerns.
Google may be driving around its own cars to gather Street View imagery, but it also crowdsources some of the data that powers Maps — this is exactly how it’s able to display congestion information, by using the location of users who have opted in to sharing it. Now the company is looking to a new source of data gathered from drivers: videos from dash cameras (via 9to5Google).
Before you start getting up in arms about how Google’s even accessing your dash cam clips, take a breath, because this is all on the up-and-up. Basically, Google has made licensing deals with either companies using their own dash cams for industrial purposes, or getting footage from dash cam manufacturers whose users have consented to sharing their footage. Just like Street View pics, personally identifiable features like faces and vehicle tags are blurred, and then Google can process these videos looking for changes — like signs for a new speed limit going up. After dash cam videos are analyzed, they’re discarded, and never shared publicly.
Right now, it looks like Google’s only partnered with a couple firms in the UK for acquiring this data, so the project appears to very geographically limited. That said, it’s a solid idea, and so long as no privacy toes are stepped on, there’s potential here to keep all the data in Maps nice and current while not requiring a whole lot of effort.
Would you share you dash cam footage with Google to help improve Maps in the area where you drive? Let us know in the comments.