The Google trike is here! System requirements: specially-trained super-fit riders

Earlier this week we reported that Google’s Street View has come under substantial privacy-related criticism in Japan.  The critics were outraged that Google’s cameras captured the insides of many Japanese backyards.  In leu of the criticism (which is definitely not a first for the web-based service), Google has decided to throw away all captured footage of the 12 cities it has already captured in Japan, and start over.  The company will reposition its cameras 40 centimeters lower (for a total height of 2.05 meters).  Not satisfied with these minor tune-ups to its fleet of Street View vehicles, Google has taken things one step further by releasing the Google Trike.  

The three-wheeled super-sized tricycles carry 250 pounds of ballast in the form of “a mounted Street View camera and a specially-decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry,” says the web giant.  Not only will such a device help in places where a standard Street View van is too tall and invades on people’s privacy by capturing their laundry (or their backyards) on camera, it will also assist Google in tight and small historic places where a regular vehicle simply can’t fit, like Genoa, Italy.

In fact, that’s where the new trikes will first be deployed, followed by the United Kingdom – where the trikes will capture plenty of famous British landmarks.  If you have one in mind, Google is open to suggestions and will be working with VisitBritain to pick out the most desirable locations to shoot.  Since it is a fact of life that people and cars will be in the Street View images along with the famous landmarks, Google promises to “apply our face-blurring and license plate blurring to all these images.”

One more thing: since the trike does weigh the hefty 250 pounds that it does, it requires a “specially trained super fit” rider.”  If you fit the descriptions, it might just be your dream job: get fit while traveling the world on Google’s expense.  Everyone else need not apply.