Photo: Barry Schwartz on SearchEngineLand
As we know already, Google Maps cars are scanning the world every single day to capture more data and street-level imagery that would then be published on Street View.
And as we said so many times before, spending so many hours on the road means these cars are prone to quite a lot of incidents and odd moments, and some of them end up on the WWW thanks to Google Street View.
This is exactly what a recent photo that went rival pretty much all over the web claims to highlight. Alleged imagery captured by the Google Maps car and displayed on Street View is said to show a woman giving birth on the side of the road, with another person holding the baby. Several individuals are also seen in the photo, with one of them apparently calling for help.
The Smart car on the side of the road, which is parked with one door open, also suggests an emergency, making people think the driver stopped the car because the woman was giving birth on her way to the hospital.
At first glance, this doesn’t sound like something that can’t happen, but on the other hand, you obviously wouldn’t expect to see it on Google Maps and Street View.
Google, however, has warned the netizens that the image is actually fake. The place where the whole thing allegedly happened is blurred out simply because there’s a house in the back and users in Germany are allowed to request the search giant to block photos of their homes.
“The alleged birth on Street View that is currently viral is just a fake,” Google Germany tweeted.
Indeed, at closer inspection, it just seems to be a well-done Photoshop, and someone has put quite a lot of effort into making this image look legitimate. The screenshot also shows the typical Street View controls, along with a Google Maps thumbnail in the lower right corner, so they really paid attention even to the smallest details when creating this fake photo.
You can check the actual Street View imagery of the location in Hubertusallee, Berlin, at this link.
This is exactly what a recent photo that went rival pretty much all over the web claims to highlight. Alleged imagery captured by the Google Maps car and displayed on Street View is said to show a woman giving birth on the side of the road, with another person holding the baby. Several individuals are also seen in the photo, with one of them apparently calling for help.
The Smart car on the side of the road, which is parked with one door open, also suggests an emergency, making people think the driver stopped the car because the woman was giving birth on her way to the hospital.
At first glance, this doesn’t sound like something that can’t happen, but on the other hand, you obviously wouldn’t expect to see it on Google Maps and Street View.
Google, however, has warned the netizens that the image is actually fake. The place where the whole thing allegedly happened is blurred out simply because there’s a house in the back and users in Germany are allowed to request the search giant to block photos of their homes.
“The alleged birth on Street View that is currently viral is just a fake,” Google Germany tweeted.
Indeed, at closer inspection, it just seems to be a well-done Photoshop, and someone has put quite a lot of effort into making this image look legitimate. The screenshot also shows the typical Street View controls, along with a Google Maps thumbnail in the lower right corner, so they really paid attention even to the smallest details when creating this fake photo.
You can check the actual Street View imagery of the location in Hubertusallee, Berlin, at this link.
Google News