Autoblog

Thanks to inventions like GPS Navigation and online directions, it's getting harder to get lost by the day. Google Maps has been a big hit for folks trying to navigate to new destinations, and the free service just got cooler with the integration of Street-View into driving directions. Now when you enter a destination and get step by step directions, you can also click on a camera icon on the map to get a street-level view of the roads you'll be traveling.

Street Maps allows you to rotate the view, click arrows to virtually travel the route, and even check out landmarks that you'll be passing along the way. That way you'll have a distinct visual to look out for when you're going to turn, instead of seeing the tiny street sign at the last possible minute. The photo resolution is so clear, you can check out where there are one-way streets, read parking signs, and even keep tabs on speed limits on your route. The only draw-back is that you need to be within one of the 44 regions of the US to use the feature, but most metropolitan areas have the feature.

[Source: Carscoop]

Those of you rolling in any new BMW model equipped with sat nav and Bluetooth connectability, save the Z4 and X3, can now integrate Google's useful, albeit sometimes erroneous, route plotting into your Bimmer. The joint effort between ze Germans and the search overlords allow users to log onto Google Maps UK, plan their route and then send the information to the vehicle's sat nav.

While that might seem like a redundancy, the truly sweet feature of the system is the ability to import ten RSS feeds into the BMW's computer, allowing you to check up on the happenings of the automotive world from your go-to obessives at Autoblog. Just try to avoid gawking at galleries while in route to pick up the kiddies.

BMW's full press release is posted post jump.

As long as everybody is on to them, Google is apparently set to step out of their surveillance vans and greet the world in a fleet of shiny new Cobalts. A Gizmodo reader happened to spot a StreetView camera van finishing a round of picture taking duty and followed it back to Google's Mountain View, California campus. While driving through the Google lot he spotted several dozen Cobalts with funky antennae on their roofs. It seems these Chevy sedanlets will be the new fleet for the next round of Google Maps StreetView captures. The "Quad Cs" (Chevy Cobalt Camera Cars) will likely be unleashed in the near future to complete Google's mission of capturing the entire Earth, on camera at least.

[Source: Gizmodo]

Wasting time scouring Google Maps with the company's new Street View feature has become our new favorite hobby. Earlier today we showed you one of the vehicles that's used to take the street level pictures. It turns out these vehicles capture some amazing things, and since they're on the ground rather than orbiting the earth, we can actually make out some cool stuff in the pics.

For instance, some mom must be so proud that her son parks his modified Buick Regal right in front of the house for all to see. He probably leaves the doors unlocked, because there's little chance anyone would approach that paint job voluntarily.

Thanks to a commenter, we found a site that's collecting all of the interesting photos the Street View cars find, and some of them are, of course, auto related. Take, for instance, the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine van that was snapped in a Palo Alto, CA parking lot. Or how about the license plate-less Mercedes-Benz of Steve Jobs? Then there are some incriminating photos that could get the Street View in trouble with their bosses. This one caught them in the drive thruhanging out at McDonalds, and this pic shows them amidst a flow of traffic that's exceeding the posted speed limit.

If you find something interesting related to autos while using Google Maps' new Street View feature, make sure to hit the Tip button above and send us the link.

Thanks to anonymous for the tip! (You know who you are)

While it was much more fun to think of the little hover-droid flying around New York City waiting to snap pictures for you of the surrounding city-scape, the reality is a bit less interesting, although more realistic. The vehicle you see in the picture above is one of Immersive Media's camera wielding cars, a Volkswagen New Beetle to be exact. These are the cars that Google is using to populate their new Street View function with pictures of major cities, or as Immersive Media themselves refer to it: 360° georeferenced spherical video. Ummm... yeah.

Since I just ruined John's fantasy of the little hover-droid, I propose this stunning possibility: Maybe this is the real Bumblebee from Transformers! He's no Camaro, he was a Bug all along. He's come to earth in an attempt to map out possible... alright, nevermind. I'll just go back to thinking of the hover-droid.

[Source: Immersive Media via Engadget]

Using Google Maps to peer down from the heavens and zoom into your best friend's back yard never gets old. Today Google further fed our God complex by introducing a brand new feature to its all-encompassing maps called Street View. Though it only appears to be working in major cities like the Big Apple, Street View allows you to drag a little yellow figure (kind of looks like the AOL dude) around the map, and wherever you drop him a window pops up showing you a 360-degree image around which you can pan to see what the figure sees at that location. It also shows you which direction each street flows, and whether it's two-way or one-way.

My overactive imagination explains the technology this way. As you drag the figure around the map, a small hover droid is activated and follows your movements over the cityscape of New York City. When you let go over, say, 436 11th Ave., the droid rapidly descends in front of the Jacob Javits Center and quickly takes a series of snaps around its spheroid body, which are then uploaded via a sat-com link to the servers at Google HQ.

Seriously, it's a pretty trick feature that should make driving to your destination much easier since you will actually know what your destination looks like. Hopefully the feature quickly rolls out in other cities besides the biggest ones.

[Source: Google Maps via Digg]

How thoughtful. Google maps not only directed one motorist to his desired address, but also found a creative place for him to park. Actually, it's just some public art. Using the satellite image feature, a visitor to this particular address in the Hague, Netherlands, will see an image of some wall art that looks suspiciously like a possible cure for overcrowding. Click here for the map link.

[Source: Carscoop]

GPS navigation systems continue to be a popular option for car buyers. Some of the most frequent complaints with electronic navigation, however, are that the maps themselves aren't updated frequently enough and that problems seem to occur when the GPS tells drivers to go down a route that may not be navigable. With the ability to be interactive and updated (even if infrequently), they still represent a huge step up in functionality over the paper maps of yore. Not only can you designate a destination and have the route personalized for you, other points of interest can be highlighted, traffic updates can be monitored, and you never have to try to refold them, so in our book it's a no-brainer.

Physically entering the desired address into the system can be tedious and distracting, however, especially at speed. BMW has developed a way to remove the middle man so to speak, which is you. With this new system, users can access Google business listings on their own computer and then forward the address and details to their Drive Assist-equipped BMWs. Rather than re-entering the information, the navi already knows it when the driver's but hits the seat. It's a nice time saver that helps make the process more accurate and safer, too. While we'd still like to have access to Google Maps when we're actually in the car, skipping the re-entry of the address helps quite a bit and it's definitely a step in the right direction. Check out the video of how it works after the jump.

[Source: Engadget]