[PRCo] Now I know how ir's done.

[Bob Rathke]

This morning I was driving westbound on Illinois Rt. 22, an d while stopped at a traffic light I saw a subcompact car approaching me.  It had a roof rack , and a 6 ft. pole attached to the roof rack .  At the top of the pole was what appeared to be a soccer ball.  The ball was surr ounded by strobe lights that were flashing as the car turned onto a residential street.  



Then I saw the small  "Google" sign on the car door. This car was photographing streets - forward/backward/right/ left -  for the Google Maps "S treet Views ". The car was moving at about 30 mph, so I assume that the driver simply followed a pre-determined street route , and location information  was tagge d by a  GPS and computer linked to the cameras. 



About 30 minutes lat er, traveling eastbound on Rt. 22, I came across the car again, still winding through through neighborhood streets. Â