Google Street View cars roam the planet to check the air quality with these sensors – TechCrunch

Aclima, a San Francisco-based start-up that builds air-quality sensors connected to the Internet, has announced plans to integrate its mobile detection platform into Google's global fleet of Street View vehicles. .

Google uses Street View cars to map the terrain for Google Maps. Starting with 50 cars in Houston, Mexico City and Sydney, Aclima will capture air quality data by generating snapshots of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), dioxide of nitrogen (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulates (PM2.5) as Google cars roam the streets. The idea is to determine where there may be too much pollution and other respiratory problems at the local level in each metropolitan area. The data will then be available as a public dataset on Google BigQuery.

Aclima has had close relationships with Google in recent years and this is not the first time she has been traveling in Street View cars. The start-up deployed its sensors to London earlier this year using Google's vehicles, and three years ago it began working with the technology giant to check the air health on Google's campus and in the Bay Area.

"All this work has resulted in a major scientific study," Aclima founder Davida Herzl told TechCrunch, referring to a study published in Environmental Science and Technology revealing that pollution levels range from five to eight times in a street. "We have found that you can have the best air quality and the best air quality in the same street … Understanding this can help with everything from urban planning to understanding your personal exposure.

This initial search now allows Aclima to increase the capabilities of Google Street View cars in the hopes of collecting even more data globally. Google Street View cars cover the roads of the seven continents and have traveled more than 100,000 miles in the state of California, with more than a billion data points since the initial launch of the project with Aclima in 2015.

The first Street View cars with updated Aclima sensors will be launched this fall in the western United States, as well as in Europe, according to the company.

"These measures can provide cities with new knowledge at the neighborhood level to help cities accelerate their efforts to transition to smarter, healthier cities." Karin Tuxen-Bettman, head of the Google Earth Outreach program, said in a statement.