Camera thingy on the roof.

[GS]

I saw a car today with what looked like a strange camera device on the roof and I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what it might be.

I can't remember what sort of car it was, just a normal hatch back type or similar. It had a roof rack fitted with what appeared to be a four sided Gatso type camera mounted on what appeared to be a very substantial 5ft ish pole on the roof. The 'camera' appeared to be 4 sided as if it was providing all round coverage. The box looked to be about 2 ft square. When I first saw the car I was surprised to see such a thing but didn't think much about it. The car was driving out of a culdesac road. About an hour later the same car turned around outside my house which is at the end of a different culdesac.

For some reason I've got it into my head that this car was just driving around the roads in the area somehow recording something!

Does the local council, (Herts) or other councils, use such a device to perhaps record which cars are on the streets or some similar info?

Or an I just being paranoid?

[James]

Initial thought say Data recording...

Google Earth?

Maps?

Estate Agent?

Ord Survey?

Other statistics?

[Jonathan]

An Astra, perhaps? Almost certainly a Google Street View car.

I'm looking forward to the UK becoming available, it will be rather helpful when planning routes.

[jont]

Something like this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/24 ... oopmobile/
Google street view.

[GS]

Just like that!

Google car! I'd never heard of that before.

Thanks for the info.

[gordonb]

There's been one of these cars about Oban over the last couple of days. A German registered Opel Astra.

Gordon

[TripleS]

I saw a car today with what looked like a strange camera device on the roof and I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what it might be.

I can't remember what sort of car it was, just a normal hatch back type or similar. It had a roof rack fitted with what appeared to be a four sided Gatso type camera mounted on what appeared to be a very substantial 5ft ish pole on the roof. The 'camera' appeared to be 4 sided as if it was providing all round coverage. The box looked to be about 2 ft square. When I first saw the car I was surprised to see such a thing but didn't think much about it. The car was driving out of a culdesac road. About an hour later the same car turned around outside my house which is at the end of a different culdesac.

For some reason I've got it into my head that this car was just driving around the roads in the area somehow recording something!

Does the local council, (Herts) or other councils, use such a device to perhaps record which cars are on the streets or some similar info?

Or an I just being paranoid?

You're being paranoid, but please don't be; that's my domain.

Unless an acceptable explanation emerges it sounds like some sort of surveillance device, in which case it needs to be in early receipt of a missile of some kind. Excessive surveillance is unacceptable and should be eliminated.

Good grief, I'm getting more like my friend Fluffnik by the day.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[Jonathan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7952317.stm

Now live. It's a shame it only covers cities so far, I can see it being rather useful once coverage expands to other parts of the road network, eg. if you wanted to explore a route a bit before driving it or revisit something that happened on an earlier drive.

[Octy_Ross]

As a part time car thief, I think it's great to know where all the exotica is parked round my way