No, they’re not updating Google Street View in Yellowknife

When a car with a 360-degree camera rolls past you in Yellowknife this summer, don’t get too excited.

It isn’t Google updating its Street View images of the city for the first time in more than a decade. It’s the City of Yellowknife assessing the health of its roads, traffic lights and signs.

The city shared an image of a vehicle with a rooftop camera on Monday and stated the car would be touring Yellowknife from July 19 to July 29.

“Using image analysis to determine road condition is a cutting-edge approach that will allow the city to assess road conditions more completely, and more often, at a fraction of the price of other methods,” Monday’s press release stated.

“This information is critical to improve long-term planning and funding of the maintenance and replacement of these assets, which are cornerstones of effective asset management.”

This map shows when and where you can expect the vehicle to show up.

The city stated the imagery collected will only be used to support the delivery of its services, and will only be shared externally “under the terms of agreements which contain appropriate clauses to ensure the protection of privacy and personal information.” No personal information collected in the images will be sold or rented.

Google Street View could probably use some of the imagery, mind you.

Street View’s version of Yellowknife dates back to July 2009. Stroll past Street View’s Capitol Theatre and you’ll find Harry Potter playing in the city’s cinema, with The Gallery still standing across the street ahead of its demolition in 2010.

Cabin Radio’s building is occupied instead by the Diavik diamond mine in those heady days. The uptown Independent is an Extra Foods and KFC is lurking downtown, among other changes.

Yellowknife is not on Street View’s Canada update list for 2022. The Google cameras will spend the year crawling through areas of Ontario and BC instead.