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And in steps google street view. They have been planning this for years.

Google Street View contains images, not point clouds. And based on my usage, it's updated roughly every year. This is not even close to sufficient for their self-driving cars.

> Google Street View contains images, not point clouds.

You are wrong[1]. Streetview vans have been outfitted with LIDAR for years and generate 3D models as they drive. Just because you do not see the point-cloud data in your browser doesn't mean Google doesn't have it.

1. http://google-street-view.com/about-google-street-view/

Neat! I stand corrected. I wonder if the map data they have all over the country/world/wherever is comparable to the cities they test their cars in. If so, that would be fantastic.

You can see the basic shapes that the images get mapped to in the browser.

I'm sure someone built a hack that let you explore that directly.

http://callumprentice.github.io/apps/street_cloud/index.html

https://flowingdata.com/2014/03/26/reconstructing-google-str...

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