- If you have a terrible sense of direction like I do,
you definitely use Google Maps.
No, like, seriously; it's bad.
I'll get lost on the way to the fridge.
But really, Google Street View is extra useful,
especially if you're a visual person.
And it's brilliant because Google cars actually drive around
and take still images of everything that they see.
No, literally; everything exactly as it is.
I think you know where I'm going with this.
More often than not, it captures extremely bizarre images
that become immortalized forever
when you look up that place.
The following are just those things.
Here are 10 crazy things caught on Google Street View.
Number 10 is a bad Google car.
The Google Street car travels the streets of the world,
capturing image after image,
giving us a true 360 representation
of the places that it visits.
But while the camera used
was designed to record these routes
for drivers using Google Maps,
the designer probably didn't think the camera
would catch the car itself breaking the law.
In this photograph from the United Kingdom,
we see a street sign digitally displaying
the current speed of the Google car.
It registers at 37 miles per hour,
but the speed limit is either 20 or 30 miles per hour,
depending on whether it's during school hours or not.
So, Google managed to incriminate itself
with its own technology.
I always knew the robots would get us in the end,
but I never thought for a second
that they'd turn on themselves.
I guess they're more like us than we thought.
Number nine are accidental shenanigans.
The subreddit Google Maps Shenanigans
is a great place to find all kinds of weird, funny,
and even creepy images caught by Google Street View.
And one of the best images is called accidental shenanigans.
In this photo, a woman in sandals
has clearly been skateboarding as the Google car passed by.
Either distracted by the car
or just being a bad skateboarder,
she tumbled off of the skateboard
and was caught forever frozen in the air
just as she hit the ground.
Now, fingers crossed that she wasn't hurt badly,
but if you look closely at the image,
I reckon her pinky saved her from the fall.
Thankfully, the woman's dignity was protected
by Google blurring her face, which is ironic,
as I'm pretty sure the entire world was a blur
to the woman who hit the dirt.
"Mama, look at me go!
"I'm having a good time.
"Is that a Google Street car?
"Oh my god."
Number eight is the Horse Boy.
In 2010, Google Street View captured
the enigmatic Horse Boy.
While taking images on a street in Aberdeen, Scotland,
the Google Street View car snapped this gentleman.
The man with the horse's head
was affectionately dubbed Horse Boy
and his purple-sweatered figure became an internet meme.
But the masses asked: Where did this strange
half-man/half-equine creature come from?
Well, in 2013, after the furor of Horse Boy died down,
he was once again seen, this time in Italy.
He was strutting down a street between two cars
when Google Street View once again immortalized him.
But the question is, is it the same man?
Is it the same horse's head or just a mask?
Or is it some kind of international cult
of horse enthusiasts finally revealed to the public?
We may never know.
Number seven is the Norwegian scuba attack.
The Google Street car captures
many strange and wonderful sights,
but one of the weirdest has to be this one.
In this photograph,
you see two men standing on a street in broad daylight.
Now, this wouldn't be strange if it weren't for the fact
that they're both dressed from head to toe
in scuba diving gear.
Complete with flippers, wetsuits, and snorkels,
one of the men brandishes a large pitchfork
while the other has something in his hand
and is running towards the camera, seemingly irate.
Two deck chairs sit at the side of the road
alongside an umbrella, so it looks like
they're waiting to make a big catch of their own,
but didn't want to get wet.
Now, I'm not sure how you'd haul away
an entire car in your scuba gear, but, hey, I guess.
In the words of Chief Brody,
they're gonna need a bigger boat.
Number six is Cat Man.
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No, it's Cat Man!
This Google Street View was captured on the corner
of a busy New York street during the day.
While the usual busy commuters of New York walk past,
one man waits across the road.
He's wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans, and a cat?
But this isn't a garment made from cat fur; no-no-no.
The cat is very alive and sitting on his head.
Either that or it's a very realistic cat-shaped hat,
in which case, why would you wear that?
Yeah, I'm gonna go with the former one.
The photograph was still in Street View until recently,
but has since been replaced with updated images.
Some claim to have seen this man
wandering around the streets of New York
with the black-and-white cat on his head,
but now he's trained the cat to stay so still
that it's anyone's guess.
He's obviously some sort of cat whisperer.
(meowing)
Number five is the disappearing skater.
While Google Street View does its best
to blur out the faces of people on the street,
it can't blur out the bizarre.
Strange artifacts are often captured by the Google car.
And while the face of the disappearing skater is blurred,
that's not the only thing that's missing.
Like something out of a bad zombie movie,
the disappearing skater's body
rises straight out of the concrete.
He also looks like he's doing a bad Thriller dance too,
so the undead motif continues.
Taken in San Diego, this is a good example
of the double exposure effects which take place
as the Google car takes thousands of images.
When the photos are put together
to create a 360-degree Street View,
sometimes passing objects,
including people, are cut in half.
Not literally; I know some people think Google is evil,
but that's taking it one step too far.
Number four are triplets.
Speaking of strange camera artifacts,
a similar process may have cloned one man into triplets.
This shot taken by the Google car
shows three identical men walking along a street.
While some joke that the three men
all dressed exactly the same are triplets,
it's easy to show that they're not.
I mean, why would triplets all dress the same
unless they were trying to mess with people?
Which is very possible,
because I know that if I were a triplet or a twin,
I would definitely blame things on my brother.
"Oh, I'm not the one that robbed the bank.
"That was my brother." (laughing)
The truth is it's another product
of how Google Street View images are put together.
Both the first man and the man in the middle's shadows
are cut off slightly by the process I mentioned earlier.
The images are stitched together and where they overlap,
you can see the shadow has been cut off.
Again, either that or Google's research
into medical science has finally paid off
and the cloning process is real.
Number three is caught in the act.
What Google Street View does best is capture
whatever is going on around a Google car with clarity,
a snapshot for generations to look back on
and see what a mad world
people in the 21st century were living in.
But it also catches bizarre moments
like this strange car phenomenon
just next to the aptly-named Crazy Horse Bar.
In the image, it appears that a group of people
have covered a car in a parking bay
completely in Saran wrap.
Either that or the car owner
really wanted to keep his car safe.
It's probable that this was just a prank in progress,
although hopefully a good-natured one,
maybe by the guy's friends.
Other explanations include a giant car-shaped cake
or a series of violent Saran wrap incidents
which had been plaguing the area at that time.
Really, someone has that much time on their hands?
The serial wrapper.
"I'll wrap you up without your consent."
(laughing maniacally)
Number two is a angry man.
Technology can cause even the most placid of people
to go into a spiral of rage.
Whether it's your computer crashing,
your phone not working, or cars on the road,
it's easy to see why so many people are stressed out.
But despite this, one piece of technology
that you wouldn't think would elicit such a response
is the Google car which captures Street View images.
But this man, oh, this man right here,
appears to be caught in the red midst of technical rage.
Despite being dressed like a teacher,
his rage knows no bounds.
As the Google car passes, he extends the courtesy
of the international sign of disapproval,
the double middle finger.
What caused this otherwise boring-looking man
to be so angry, nobody knows.
Perhaps he's angry at Google Glass failing.
And number one is Hi Ho Silver, Away!
Okay, honestly, I'm not sure whether to joke
or be concerned about this one.
Let's go with a joke.
This Google Street View image is why I love the internet.
Real life is almost always stranger than fiction.
Here, we see a young man running down a street
as if he's being chased.
And you might be wondering,
"Matt, is he being pursued by a police car,
"a motorbike, a rabble of pitchfork-wielding villagers?"
Nope, but actually that last one would be pretty funny.
No, he's in fact being chased by a man on a horse.
And the chaser is holding a large stick
or perhaps a machete of some kind,
wielding it like a madman.
It's like a scene out of a modern-day Red Dead Redemption,
only it's actually happening.
I really hope this isn't a violent attack
and that it's just some sort of harmless horseplay,
no pun intended.
Actually, that may have been
the greatest pun I've ever used.
You're welcome.
(slow circus-like accordion music)