The MagazineCanada

Google has updated Street View with a new mapping approach that widens the range of places users can explore. Instead of relying solely on cars, the company mounted a camera to a tricycle to reach routes and destinations that vehicles cannot access. This design allows Street View to capture campuses, hiking trails, theme parks, and other spaces where car based imagery is impractical or unsafe. The vehicle used for this project, affectionately nicknamed the Trike, weighs about 115 kilograms and carries a GPS unit on its handlebars to ensure precise geolocation data. The camera repeatedly captures high resolution still photos as the trike moves. Those images are then stitched together to form a continuous panoramic view that users can pan and zoom through. The result is a more complete virtual tour of spaces that were previously out of reach for mapping cars. The update is slated for a rollout toward the end of the summer, with availability extending across selected markets in North America. For Canadian and American users, this means more accurate representations of university campuses, national and regional parks, outdoor recreation areas, and entertainment venues that require careful navigation due to terrain or pedestrian traffic. From a planning standpoint, the Trikes offer inspectors and researchers new opportunities to study foot traffic patterns and accessibility features in areas where car access is limited or prohibited. Visitors will be able to explore a wider array of sites that were once challenging to map, making it easier to plan trips, study campus layouts, or compare routes at a glance. Privacy and safety considerations remain a priority in this effort. The imagery produced by the Trike undergoes standard processing to blur faces and license plates and to ensure compliance with local rules about public imagery. The approach mirrors Google Street View’s broader strategy of expanding coverage with purpose built platforms that respect residents and visitors while delivering practical, on the ground context for navigation, education, and exploration. As users in Canada and the United States begin to see these new trike captured panoramas, researchers and travellers alike can anticipate richer, more versatile virtual tours that complement the existing car based imagery. In environments where pedestrians are more common than vehicles or where vehicle access is restricted by terrain or campus policies, the Trike offers a flexible, scalable solution. Google engineers emphasize that this technology is not replacing existing car based Street View imagery, but rather expanding the catalog of locations to offer a more inclusive digital map of the world. The rollout is expected to proceed in stages, with testing in select locations followed by a broader release that venues can opt into as part of their digital presence. The combination of mechanical mobility, real time geolocation, and high fidelity photography results in a viewer experience that feels immediate and immersive, enabling students, hikers, and park visitors to preview routes, facilities, and layouts before stepping off on the ground. This development fits within the company’s mission to make information about places universally accessible and useful, empowering people to explore more of their surroundings with confidence and curiosity.