Hmm... I'm surprised they don't use Toyota Prius, given that Google's supposed to be a "cool" and "green" company.

The Chevy Cobalt is kind of blegh...

Coming to a city near you - the Google Upskirt Moto Fleet.

Oh, wait -- Apple iPone has a lock on that one.

Not to sound smug (heh), but I would've thought they'd use hybrids for this thing.

Make sure you're not standing the in the window naked. Google might invade your privacy with these! I can't wait for more idiots to complain about that when Google covers more area with this.

That has to be the most boring job ever.

Actually, it is cheaper to purchase a Chevy Cobalt and the concomitant carbon offsets than it would be to purchase a comparable Toyota Prius. The production of a Chevy Cobalt is far more economically friendly than that of a Prius, since the latter requires literally hundreds of batteries each with a production cost of over 600 megagores*.

* 1 gore = the net environmental impact of Al Gore, which is very tiny

I would like to petition Google to not shoot my house or development. There's no need for it. I bet I could get a local ordinance prohibiting them somehow.

I would love to have been the car salesman that was working that day when Google walked in and was like "We need 30 brand new Chevy Cobolts, STAT!". I bet that guy took the rest of the month off.

I just called a tip in of a suspicious individual in a chevy cobalt taking pictures of every government installation. And my cat. My government cat.

Yo if one of them joints rolls up into my hood, we gon fo-sho throw that whip up on bricks. No one comes though my projects... NO ONE, not even squale!

"I bet I could get a local ordinance prohibiting them somehow."

You're going to get a local ordinance overturning the First Amendment? Good luck with that...

Your home or development has no reasonable expectation of privacy from car taking pictures from a publically funded street.

why buy all these cars when they could just pay people to have a camera on their car. i.e. Truckers, cab drivers, Cops. I guess they need standardization.

According to this article:
[www.usatoday.com]

A Cobalt coupe is $12,990 at fleet pricing. Multiplied by 30, that's only like $389,700. I know companies that spend more than that in AdWords a month. Not too shabby.

Can't wait till they do Washington, D.C. so I can see my house.

Ah Google, mapping every nook n' cranny.

Now, I would like to walk into Google headquarters with a 3D camera on my head, and take pictures of every room, every office, every bathroom they have.

The cameras were much cuter on Volkswagen Beetles.

don't feel ashamed about your dilapidated living conditions supermacguy. you are doing the best you can, and a refrigerator box is better than no home at all. someday, you'll be moving on up to a storage shed, and then to a halfway house. dream big, good sir!

I've been looking for an opportunity to turn my hobby of photographing dudes coming out of porn shops into a profession for quite some time. Where do I send my resume and driving record?

Wait, that'd actually be pretty neat job. Seriously, are they hiring?

Ha! It's the CCCP. Chevy Cobalt Camera Patrol. Damn commies with their wantin' pictures of everything.

How does a van with 360 degree viewing capability not notice someone tailing them back to their headquarters?

How does a van with 360 degree viewing capability not notice someone tailing them back their headquarters?

Alright for Google. A real all-American company using Chevys. Now let's hope the cameras are Kodaks too.

I was in Des Moines Iowa three weeks ago. I spotted three of these vehicles in the hotel parking lot. I approached them, but couldn't figure out what the contraption on the roof was. I knew it wasn't a bike rack, but hadn't seen an antenna like that before. I kind of suspected Google, but couldn't figure out where the camera was. Now I know...

I wish someone would build a fleet of panel trucks with ads on them and drive on each side blocking their view with ads.

That would be sweet justice.

My neighborhood was in the intial roll out of the street level view on google. No idea why. It is teh ghetto. You can totally see a bunch of thug types shooting dice out front.

...breaking news ...google ceo will be attaching cameras to segways as an environmentally friendly way to capture data for the "Google Sidewalks" program.

This program's target audience will rance from skateboarding kids to old folks on walkers.

Where's the damn lot? I've seen a lot of our parking lots and have never seen that one. How can your tipster keep this info from us? I wanna see the fleet...

This could have been a prime opportunity to showcase Google's "plug in hybrid" vehicles. Their massive photovoltaic array could charge em up and let them put around town on sun juice (at least for a portion of their daily jot).

I'm 96.5% sure that I saw one of these in Indianapolis last Thursday. I was standing in line for a comedy show in the "arty" section of Indianapolis when I saw it.

I didn't think it was Google because, until now, I thought Google used vans, but it looked EXACTLY like the cars pictured in this post (funny camera attachment and all).

I wonder if they see 2 dogs humping are they going to take a picture of that.
Or even better if they see Pam and Tommy lee going @ it in their car will they take a pic.
i mean seriously. Cool and innovate but doesnt yahoo just use a Satellite???

At least the Cobalt's are fuel efficient vs the Microsoft Virtual Earth's Chevy Suburban!

"Here, just swallow this... there you go..."

"Google Colon??? You've gone too far!! Wow, my small intestine is quite fetching!"

Anyone remember the Futurama episode where the brains were collecting all of the information in the universe, only to destroy it in order to have a perfectly complete document of it? Then Fry had to travel back in time to save time? Or something? Oh well, it was a good episode.

I hope someone can come up with a time machine before Google finishes.

Does anyone else think this is a little stupid in terms of national security.. Maybe we can do this as soon as Europe, Africa, Asia, South America all allow us to do it there too?

I mean, why not let people see and know more and more about us and all of our 'high value targets' and exactly how to get around!

Now, if it can be blocked so you can't see it outside of the country, that's a start.. and forget everything I said.

Finally I want to say that this is much more valuable for foreign exotic places.. but who cares about seeing all the same strip malls and chain restaurants all over the US? That's what most of this is going to be!

Where can I find the schedule for these guys? Assuming they drive up one block and down the next, I plan to cut across there path. I want to make sure I appear to be just "walking down the road" at at least 200 different locations in my hometown. Oh - I'll be changing my clothes each time the google-car passes me, and maybe carrying different items. I can't wait to show everyone my clone army.

"their"

AWESOME! I saw one of these drive by my house today and was confused by what on earth was on top of the car driving by. For a second I thought it was google, but it didn't look like the vans from before so i forgot about it until i just came onto Giz.

@FLSKYDIVER
Get a red & white striped shirt (Where's Waldo?) and do it!

I just think its a cool, but pointless feature.. and its gonna open them up to so many potential hassles.

My phone has a 3d rendering of all the streets and that works fine.. imho its much mmore practiclly useful than the photomapping method google likes.. plus it must be much cheaper to implement.. and easier to update.

And non of the privacy/security concerns.

Plus, with people adding photos and comments to google earth all the time anyway.. they can let people add the photos and absolve themselves of all the hassle.

I can't help but feel that, by the time they finish photographing one city it will be out of date due to new construction.

Sems to me like a pet project they are doing because its a cool idea.. not because its a GOOD idea.

i totally used this feature the other day. here in palo alto/mountain view/etc., el camino real is just one big smorgasborg of ugly strip malls with myriad podunk shops on either side of the road continuing on forever in either direction - missing the particular place you happen to be looking for (for me, it was a Supercuts) is easy. so, before i set out to get my fro chopped i used Street View to grab a couple of landmarks before i left. it totally helped. not only did i find my place on the first shot (it was only a mile away, but i'm telling you, el camino is America at its worst and most typical and identical strip-malled self), but i had plenty of time to get over.

loss of privacy? check.

increased effeciency? check.

improved safety? check.

decent haircut for $15 + $5? check.

I've been wanting to take a road-trip for YEARS!
I wonder if Google will pay someone to drive cross country, rather than up and down the streets of the same city.

Anybody got an estimate of how many man -hours it would take to drive the streets of every major community in America.?
You think they'll be able to enter gated communities (it will making casing the heist simpler!)

Look out America. Google's out to photograph everything in it's path so they can post it on their Streetview navigation site. Their vehicle of choice for camera chores is the Chevy Cobalt.Full story here.

a quick search reveals that there are about 4 million paved miles of roads in the USA. Assume they have teams that can keep those 30 cars driving 365 days a year. My math reveals that each car would have to drive an average of 365 miles per day to get every single road-inch. Very doable.

They are in Knoxville, Tennessee right now.

I suppose I should have included a link to a post with pictures in Knoxville. Looks like a sock over the camera. Can it shoot through the cover or is this a "disguise" while commuting to the next area to shoot?

this is officially creepy- i can see into my apt. window - this was done in the summer after a particular storm that knocked some trees down- too big brother!!!!!

I seen one today and took a pic with cam phone. The lady driving was going like 83 it was hard trying to take the shot. She had a mounted laptop inside and on the back of car is CA license and the back of roof has yellow GPS receiver. I think she figured out i was taking shots and got off the highway cause she disappeared after i let a car pass.

this was in Raleigh, NC