Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Middletown Police Department
Google's Street View cars, which collect street-level imagery that later becomes available for users worldwide on Google Maps, drive countless miles every year to scan the planet for us. Driving offenses and tickets are unavoidable, but a Google car driver in Indiana pushed everything to a whole new level.
A Middletown police officer clocked Coleman Ferguson, driving a Google Street View car with 360-degree cameras mounted to the roof, at over 100 mph close to the Shenandoah High School on US 36. The speed limit in the region is 55 mph (unless the school zone lights enforce a 40 mph restriction).
The officer engaged in a pursuit, requesting the Google vehicle to stop. Ferguson maintained the high speed and eventually ran a red light.
The high-speed chase ended fast once the Google employee tried to turn south close to Pendleton, Indiana. He noticed a bridge being out, so they believed they could lose their tail by using another route at the last moment. Due to the sharp turn, the driver lost control of the car and crashed into a yard, eventually getting stuck into a creek.
The police officers took the driver into custody and transported him to the hospital for medical clearance. He's now arrested for Resisting Law Enforcement.
The Google driver had a good reason for his refusal to stop: he was scared, so running away from the cops was the better choice.
The Mountain View-based search giant has remained tight-lipped on the incident, but I don't expect the man to work for the company after he resolves his legal problems.
While I doubt that the high-speed pursuit will ever make its way to Google Maps, even if the cameras were on, Google's service remains impressive. It provides access to street-level imagery of nearly every place on Earth – Google's official statistics shared in 2019 revealed that the company covered 98 percent of the places where people live. The company said its drivers collected 10 million miles of Street View imagery.
Rival Apple is also working around the clock on a Street View alternative. Look Around is a service primarily focused on high-resolution imagery, allowing users to explore a location from their iPhone. Compared to Google's Street View, Apple Look Around focuses on the level of detail offered to users. However, Look Around is still in the early days, so it's available only in a very limited number of regions worldwide.
If you want to keep an eye on Street View hoping to see footage of this high-speed chase, the pursuit started on US 36 in front of Shenandoah High School and continued in the 8500 block of West US 36, into Madison County, and at the intersection of State Road 109 and US 36.
The officer engaged in a pursuit, requesting the Google vehicle to stop. Ferguson maintained the high speed and eventually ran a red light.
The high-speed chase ended fast once the Google employee tried to turn south close to Pendleton, Indiana. He noticed a bridge being out, so they believed they could lose their tail by using another route at the last moment. Due to the sharp turn, the driver lost control of the car and crashed into a yard, eventually getting stuck into a creek.
The police officers took the driver into custody and transported him to the hospital for medical clearance. He's now arrested for Resisting Law Enforcement.
The Google driver had a good reason for his refusal to stop: he was scared, so running away from the cops was the better choice.
The Mountain View-based search giant has remained tight-lipped on the incident, but I don't expect the man to work for the company after he resolves his legal problems.
While I doubt that the high-speed pursuit will ever make its way to Google Maps, even if the cameras were on, Google's service remains impressive. It provides access to street-level imagery of nearly every place on Earth – Google's official statistics shared in 2019 revealed that the company covered 98 percent of the places where people live. The company said its drivers collected 10 million miles of Street View imagery.
Rival Apple is also working around the clock on a Street View alternative. Look Around is a service primarily focused on high-resolution imagery, allowing users to explore a location from their iPhone. Compared to Google's Street View, Apple Look Around focuses on the level of detail offered to users. However, Look Around is still in the early days, so it's available only in a very limited number of regions worldwide.
If you want to keep an eye on Street View hoping to see footage of this high-speed chase, the pursuit started on US 36 in front of Shenandoah High School and continued in the 8500 block of West US 36, into Madison County, and at the intersection of State Road 109 and US 36.
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