Google Maps to provide 360-degree panoramic street images through its newly launched feature Street View
Google announced the launch of its Street View experience in India in partnership with Genesys International, an advanced mapping solutions company, and Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions.
Starting today, Street View will be available on Google Maps with fresh imagery licensed from local partners covering over 150,000 km across ten cities in India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.
Google, Genesys International, and Tech Mahindra plan to expand this to more than 50 cities by the end of 2022. This launch marks the first time in the world that Street View is being brought to life completely by local partners.
“Over the past 14 years we have innovated to bring helpful, local, and high-quality experiences to people across the nation. We believe the launch of Street View in India will be instrumental in delivering a more helpful user experience, from virtually visiting locations to getting a better sense of local businesses and establishments”, says Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences.
“We remain committed to collaborating with local organizations and the government as we work toward delivering even more useful features and information on Maps. We will continue to do this responsibly, enabling accurate, authentic, and trustworthy information. We look forward to extending our technology and expertise to the local ecosystem,” adds Miriam.
Technology and data collection
Genesys used specialized camera installed on top of four-wheelers, three-wheelers, two-wheelers as well as on bag packs to run on the streets and capture the data, which were then segregated and used to create accurate maps. These data will help citizens to make real-time informed decisions, such as which restaurant to visit for a dine-in experience or to order in to avoid parking problems.
The data will also provide more accurate and reliable maps and help in figuring out the road signs for those who are not familiar with them such as tourists or layman. It will also help to analyze the property and locality before starting a business or investing in it.
The Genesys constellation will now serve to bring to life India’s lively streets and lanes, where citizens will be able to explore sites and view man-made wonders from the comfort of their own home or anywhere else, using their mobile device.
“We were the first Indian firm to perform street imaging of all major cities in India. Our fleet is still swiftly photographing Indian cities, bringing to life our city’s amazing tapestry of streets and landmarks and allowing us to comfortably visit our old neighborhoods or plan our trips”, says Sajid Malik, Managing Director of Genesys International Corporation Limited
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“Thanks to the progressive move made by the Government of India, the new geospatial policy that was announced in 2021, which encourages entities to invest and collect geospatial data. Following that we collect the data and offer license to Google to further use it in their service,” adds Malik.
The partnership will leverage output from Tech Mahindra’s ‘Gullyfy’ project done in collaboration with eco-system partners, and is being carried out by Tech Mahindra in accordance with the accuracy thresholds laid out in the geospatial guidelines.
As a part of the partnership, Tech Mahindra will be responsible for GIS processes from data creation, resourcing, insights generation, and the actual collection of the street-level imagery. The GIS framework gathers, manages, analyzes, and maps all types of vital datasets used across sectors and industries for cartography, administration, relational database management, programming, and spatial analytics, among others.
“Technology is not just the backbone of the global economy, but is also a strategic tool which can turn insights into solutions, uncover trends and predictions, and transform businesses in a sustainable manner. Today, there is an increasing need for technologies that turn insights from GIS into ready products that can be utilized by customers”, says Birendra Sen, Business Head, Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra,
“The GIS industry has only grown manifold with time, owing to increased data availability and the development of smart cities all over the world. In line with this, our partnership with Google is another step toward delivering high-quality and immersive mapping experiences to the people of India”, he adds.
Another important factor that has been added in the feature is that the people who are exposed to the 360-degree panoramic image view have been blurred on the screen, as well as the vehicle numbers. And anyone who is not willing to get their residential revealed can write to Google Maps and their residential area will be blurred out as well, adds Miriam.
This partnership is in line with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance ‘Human Centric Experience’, and focuses on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enables digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer.
Future use
With time the Google search experience has also changed. Due to social media, the youth have evolved and they no longer search for usual touristy places. They take cue from social media likings and look for similar places like live music or night life, this is where the Street View is headed towards to bring all these syntactic in its feature soon, added Miriam.
The feature is similar to using Google maps, once you open Google maps, you zoom into a road in any of these target cities, and tap the area you want to view. Get to know the local cafes, and cultural hotspots, or check out the local neighborhood. Street View will help people navigate and explore new corners of the country and the world in a more visual and accurate way, enabling them to fully experience what it’s like to be in these places, right from their phone or computer.
Street View APIs will also be available to local developers enabling them to deliver richer mapping experiences in their services.
“Google Maps has always been at the forefront of geospatial technology, and we are honored to be an enabler of their efforts by offering the best technology to India and its people”, adds Malik.
Late entry to India
Google unveiled this feature globally 15 years ago and it’s used in more than 100 countries today. Street View was earlier slated for launch at least twice in the last decade in India but was banned due to security concerns, particularly around sensitive border areas.
It has finally been relaunched after a long wait. This time the local partners, Genesys and Tech Mahindra, are engaged in data collection, made possible with the revised geospatial policy.
Both the companies confirm that they are adhering to the new geospatial policy and are not mapping high-security areas like the Parliament, official residential areas as well as the borders.
