Apple Maps Van

I was working in my garden today, cleaning and preparing it for next spring, when I saw a white van with strange objects mounted on its roof drive slowly past. There isn't much traffic in this neighborhood and this van looked like something I read about. I quickly stopped my garden work and was in hot pursuit with my truck.



My suspicion was correct. It was the Apple Maps Van. These vans are used to collect data and images for maps. The vans are equipped with 6 cameras for a 360 degree image, GPS and a wheel encoder for location and measurements, and four Velodyne LIDAR sensors mounted on each corner of the van. LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is sophisticated 3D depth-sensing technology. The LIDAR sensors on the van measure precisely the road and its surroundings, including curbs, drainage channels, even potholes — to within millimeters.