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Google Street View Car Sees the Dark (Red) Side of Spanish Traditions

Sometimes when a Google Street View car is spotted, the crazy side of the human nature surfaces. We are talking about the occasional individual who goes crazy. Blinded by his chance at a minute of fame, he'll either dress up silly and chase the car or simply moon the cameras mounted on the roof-rack.
Google Street View car gets pummeled with tomatoes 3 photos
Photo: Nedim Chaabene | Flickr
Google Street View car swampedGoogle Street View car swamped
Yeah, those guys are amateurs. This year, Google announced the intention of capturing the streets of the quiet city of Buñol, Spain, before and after the local festival called La Tomatina.

You've probably seen this on TV: people gather in the town's central square with trucks full of ripe tomatoes waiting for them there. They get as naked as their level of sobriety allows and start throwing the red fruits/vegetables around until there's only ketchup left. At the end, if everybody stood still, it would look like the most horrible mass grave in history.

Due to an error in scheduling, the Google that was supposed to capture the aftermath of the fight came into the square too early. Big mistake, since as soon as the tomatoes started flying, so did everybody's common sense. The car got seriously damaged and, probably worst of all for the giant company, none of the recorded material could be salvaged.

This unfortunate turn of events is in great contrast with Google's candid initial statements. They said "the vehicle will collect images in 360 degrees before and after the tomato fight to capture the magic and color that flooded the streets of Buñol during this festival." What they really managed to capture was a previously unseen part of Spanish hospitality.

Just to get an idea on the scale of this festival, there are about 30,000 people from around the world taking part each year and roughly 150 metric tons of tomatoes being thrown around. Unlike many other Spanish traditions, nobody usually gets hurt during La Tomatina but, on the other hand, no other Google Street View car ever attended before.

Looking at the images we get the impression Google's car unwillingly became the focus point of the entire event. You can see about a dozen people riding on top of the car with any escape paths cut out by the huge crowd. We can only imagine it quickly turned into a mauling with the car giving up any hope of making it out of there any other color than red.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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