Having seen them in their various Avatars over the years; images of the greasy-handed, welding-gun yielding Googler no longer come as a surprise! Stories of the entrepreneurial Googler abound across the globe and the uniqueness of their projects never ceases to amaze.
Google is perhaps one of the few corporations on earth that is hardly “outgunned” in terms of resources. Engineer Dan Ratner lets us take a sneak peek at what goes on behind the construction of the highly acclaimed prototypes like snowmobile and Street View trike; a result of their 20 percent and personal time.
We have witnessed that the quintessential Googler is as comfortable in a workshop creating business prototypes, model airplanes, home furniture or components for the company’s self-driving cars; as he is at a desk pouring over millions of graphs and exercising his brilliance.
Googlers at work in a Google Workshop
Google workshops are places where you’ll find everything from an oscilloscope to a plasma cuter to a miter saw, ably handled by Google staff in mechanical gear. Dan, a mechanical engineer himself reveals how Street View trike came about and how the wonderful architecture that lined the narrow alleys of Barcelona through which even a Smart Car cannot pass, proved to be an inspiration. He said, watching a pedicab pedalling along the pier in San Francisco after his return home sparked an idea, and the result – the Street View trike.
The Street View trike is a mobile unit that collects outdoor imagery from cultural sites and parks, and it can reach places otherwise unreachable by a car. It’s a part of Google Maps and lets you explore places around the world with the help of 360-degree street-level imagery. People like you and me can request for the Street View team to visit the location, be it a mall, university campus, a park or something else. The visiting team collects all the imagery they require using either a trike, car or even a snowmobile, depending on the location. Once that’s done, the property will virtually be available for the world to explore.
Take a look at this wonderful imagery for San Diego State University. It can be zoomed and viewed as close as possible.
After running a series of tests and improving on the concept, Dan and a couple of other engineers from Google were invited to use their prototype trike around Legoland.
Dan says, “We were invited to use our prototype trike around Legoland, our first participant in the Street View Partner Program. Our prototype and 20 percent project eventually evolved into a production-quality trike fleet and full-scale operation employing many Googlers around the world.”
Dan on his Street View trike
The prototypes that Google brings out don’t come easy. Days and nights are spent in the Google workshops, testing out components of wood and metal and this level of hard work went into the creation of the Street View snowmobile and trolley.
Dan explains that like everything else, the initial prototypes may seem wet behind the ears and amateurish, but all their end products are highly polished and amazing.
Google has become well-known for being innovative and the very fact that Googlers come up with all these amazing prototypes, programs, and ideas in their personal or 20% time talks a lot about their dedication and willingness to take on challenges and opportunities that many others would scamper away from.
Dan, also a robotics enthusiast, says he looks forward to going back to work each day to be a part of all this madness.
You can submit your property if you want it to be included in Street View, to be viewed by millions around the world.
Tags: Google, Google workshops, Googlers
