Porsche Prototypes Photographed By Google Street View
In Japan, a privacy rights group demands the take-down of Google’s Street View, after couples entering love hotels, or men urinating outdoors found a permanent home on Google’s servers. The Japanese group now found another ally: Porsche, or rather Porsche’s test drivers. They were caught by Google’s Street View car with the pants of some prototypes down. The invasion of Porsche’s privacy was spotted by a contributor to the Garage419 blog. In anticipation of his next vacation, he had googled the Mount Evans Toll Road.
To his blogging delight, he found Porsche engineers throwing tarps (the traditional kind) over new Caymans and Boxsters, to hide them from the prying eyes of the oncoming Googlemobile. The tarp came too late for what, according to Garage419, “looks to be a face-lifted 911 Turbo and Targa,” which were caught in the flesh. The find made headlines as far as in Australia, where the Sydney Morning Herald warned to not read too much into the pictures grabbed by Google: “The images from Mount Evans were added last year, but it’s not clear when they were taken. Often, it can be several months between the time images are captured and when they are made publicly available on Street View.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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911s? They look a lot like the recently facelifted Boxster to me. Only the mirrors look kind of weird to me, and above the rear air inlets there's an unidentified gill that could also be a reflection. At first side the roofline looks ever so slightly different as well but I haven't compared it to the current one 1-to-1 yet. Could it be the 2011 Boxster disguised as the new 2009/10 Boxster facelift?
More to the point, I agree that cameras should be removed from public roads and spaces. Big Brother does it under the guise of traffic control and no one seems to care that their rights are being violated. It is not a matter of whether or not it seems innoucuous to the average, law abiding citizen. It is a matter of principle. Where does it stop? Public bathrooms, hotels, public swimming pools, parks, etc.?
I've never seen a "Google Eye" on a vehicle, but I imagine it's just some people trying to make a buck in these times - just drive around. They drove by my house a year ago, when the mail was being delivered (so it was around 1:30 PM). I also found my car parked in my company lot (probably on a diffenent day). Hmmm - I wonder if the time stamps for these could be subpoena(ed) by the gov't or a lawyer? I bet so. Expect to see a lot more "Google Eye" type vehicles in the future - working for all media types, law firms AND the gov't. When this becomes common, I'll make it a point to scratch my balls when one drives by...
Wait, you mean that when you're in public, people can see you?