Street View Comes Unstuck
Wednesday, 8th April 2009 by RobK
Even a company as all-powerful as Google occasionally needs a helping hand, as the driver of this Street View car in Australia discovered. Give him credit though: despite getting stuck in the mud, he kept his camera running to record the little drama that played out under the hot Outback sun...
Our man got into difficulties on the remote Bourke-Wilcannia road, in north west New South Wales. In the early days of Australian settlement, the town of Bourke came to represent the western edge of civilisation, and the expression "back o'Bourke" is still used to refer to the wilds of the Outback. It's no surprise, then, that the road conditions can be far from ideal.
After battling bravely through the first flood, the Street View car finally gets bogged down in this patch of mud a few miles short of the small town of Tilpa1.
Cursing his luck, our driver makes a heroic effort to free himself, spinning the wheels and sending mud flying into the air, but to no avail.
Luckily, help soon arrives, in the form of a vehicle that seems to be coping rather better with the conditions.
The driver of the 4x42 hops out to see what's happening, even crouching down to have a look at the wheels.
Good job he remembered to bring the tow rope - our man is freed to film another day. Sadly, he switched off the camera soon after he was pulled free, so we can't see what happened next. Let's hope he at least bought his knight in shining armour a cold beer.
Thanks to Ken Arnold.
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Although since the town itself apparently only has a population of nine, perhaps the driver didn't miss much. ↩︎
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Who probably isn't Larry David, although it does look like him. ↩︎
About the author
Rob is a subeditor and freelance writer from Hampshire, England, who enjoys travel both real and virtual.
One thing I missed earlier – as the Street View car gets pulled out, there’s a woman standing at the side of the road watching:
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=-30.912351,144.626105&z=16&layer=c&cbll=-30.912199,144.624578&cbp=11,46.99452191235075,,1,4.2156374501992015
A passenger from the 4×4? Or could it even be the Street View driver standing at a safe distance?
Can some one enlighten me why Google have gone to the time and expense of streetviewing some god for saken empty roads in the middle of bloomin nowhere? It sort of defeats the object of Street View.*
*i’m still not sure what the object of Street View is quite yet but you get my point i hope.
I’m sure the streetview driver was wondering the same thing as he realised he was stuck!
Is it just me or does everyone choose to believe that they only have one driver covering the entire planet?
Well, one could ask whether you actually need a street to have a “Street View”…
Also, I started going up & down the roads there, and it seems like the driver was clearly lost (this in spite of having GPS). There are spots of “surveyage” all up & down the roads there… example
pat 🙂
The guy that pulled him out must have really been going fast down that road, or the SV car was going really slow. If you go back here: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=-30.911982,144.658613&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-30.91048,144.662592&cbp=11,48.52026390197927,,0,25.44297832233741 You can’t even see the guy. Here https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=-30.911982,144.658613&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-30.912596,144.658528&cbp=11,48.520263901979256,,0,25.44297832233741 you can just make out the shape of his truck. Closer: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=-30.913823,144.652004&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-30.916271,144.647407&cbp=11,83.80772855796418,,0,25.78228086710651 and finally, just before he gets stuck: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=-30.913566,144.625611&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-30.912468,144.627315&cbp=11,72.61074458058436,,0,25.697455230914226
Yes, I have no life…
I didn’t know Dick Cheney was in Australia now.
That guy really does look like Larry David! haha
is it my imagination that the guy looks like he is wearing a really bad Halloween mask?
I followed the road the vehicle was on west all the way to a town called “Tilpa”, and found to my surprise a small part of “downtown” had been surveyed! It looks like the tail vehicle followed the survey vehicle all the way there, but the survey vehicle wasn’t surveying. Maybe towed, when the survey vehicle was started, no doubt it started surveying, and the vehicle pulls into the local store, with the trailing vehicle at first staying at the intersection, then following behind the survey vehicle. link
Not sure whether the person in the pic is from the survey or trailing vehicle.
pat 🙂