Prior to the recent Street View update you could pan down on the street view images to see the car which carried the 360° cameras around the cities.

However, the most recent update somehow manages to make the car disappear, so that you can see the road below.

We presumed this was a simple processing effect that blends the images from either end of the car, but it is in fact wearing an invisible cloak.

The give-away was in the invisible car’s shadow, where you’ll notice the ruffles of the cloak skimming the ground. Are Google licensing technology from Harry Potter now?

Thanks: Zoe Lozada

It’s been a whole year since Google first launched their controversial Street View service, and we posted our first Street View sight. Since then we’ve seen the rate of discovery of the most bizarre and unusual finds increase as Google has added more and more US cities to the roster.

With the service due to launch soon in Canada, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan, we thought we’d mark the one year anniversary with a roundup of the best 10 Street View discoveries that we haven’t already posted to the site.

10) Google camera gets stuck in tree

Yes, this driver forgot he had a giant camera stuck to the top of his car, and drove it into a low-hanging tree.

9) The giant finger of doom

Arrgh! The giant finger of doom! Actually, if you pan round you can see that this is actually an image of a normal-sized man with the world’s biggest hand.

8) Working girls, working

Well, not actually in flagrante, but rather hanging around waiting to possibly um… service some customers?

7) Scuba diver on city street

Well he isn’t a Scuba diver unless he’s in the water. Walking along the road like this just makes him a bit of an idiot.

6) Segway convoy

Rubby ducky rubber ducky, come in, this is ageing geek! We got ourselves a convoy!

5) Usin publik transport: ur doin it rong

Is this the cab’s driver, or a passenger in need of some assistance? Perhaps this person has been subjected to a particularly lethal LOLcat attack?

4) Having to explain the enormously suspicious camera on the top of your car to a police officer

“Yes officer that’s right, taking photos to put on the internet!” *Click*.

3) Man with giant head stomps all over Street View car

A relative of the man with the world’s biggest hand, this man must surely have the largest head on the planet.

2) Post-it attack!

A couple of teenage girls take brilliantly surreal revenge upon somebody, and don’t blink as a car passes recording their actions forever…

1) How not to get IN a car

We’re stunned, we have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on here. Brilliantly bizarre and a worthy winner of the top spot!

This post has been around the web several times already, but by popular demand, here’s the Street View sighting of a child pointing a gun at another child on the streets of Chicago.

In the next frame we can see that the “intended victim” is still standing, so maybe this was just a couple of kids playing with water pistols, but sooner or later Google will presumably let images of a terrible tragedy slip through into their mapping services.

See our Street View archive for more sights like this.

Originally via Streetviewfun, thanks to Scott, Marc James, Martyn and biauas.

It was inevitable. As people became aware of the Google Street View Camera Car, people were going to use it to get their five minutes of fame – now we have the girl who will forever be known as the first person to flash her chest at the Google Street View car.

Thankfully for her, the main event was not captured, proving that even the most shameless behaviour still requires good timing!

In the past, we have had more opportunity-grabbing clowns, such as those who have been caught relieving themselves, people who attempt to perform complex bicycle stunts, and the man who made himself famous for giving the Google crew the finger. Perhaps an extension of their new face blurring technology is needed to curb these miscreants?

A recent update to the Street View images of Manhattan has added a new feature designed to protect the privacy of innocent people wandering the streets. So what is this incredible new technology? Why, it’s automatic blurry faces of course!

The new system is designed to detect faces in the street view images and blur them out, so everyone looks like they’ve been watching The Ring.

Due to the vast amount of data involved here, the system is fully automatic – which fortunately for us, appears to be prone to making mistakes! For example, it’s not just real faces that get blurred – this roadside advert featuring the face of the Dali lama has also been obscured to protect his privacy rights (although if you move up the street and look back and you’ll be able to make out his face).

It seems that the system really is very good though. Too good perhaps, as demonstrated by this completely anonymous horse in central park.

One of the reasons that Google has implemented this technology now is possibly that the privacy laws in Canada, Australia and much of Europe would not have allowed images like these to be published otherwise, so it appears that Street View will definitely be coming to a city near you soon.

In the meantime, can anyone find any other examples of incorrectly blurred faces? Or perhaps you can recognise someone despite the blurring? Let us know in the comments!