It now seems almost hard to imagine life before Google Maps and similar applications – the days of pulling out an A to Z, or relying solely on road signs. Yet one of the vehicles at the centre of that revolution recently found itself in the middle of an insurance-led controversy.
Street View provides street-level imagery from around the world through Google Street View Cars – vehicles with a host of high-resolution technological devices able to grab 360-degree shots. Spotting the vehicles has become a pastime for some – but one particular sighting in Greece, highlighted an important oversight.
According to a report by Autoevolution.com, an Opel Astra being used for the Street View imagery in Greece was reportedly driving on public roads without insurance. There is an online verification tool in the country that allows anyone to check whether or not a car is insured – and this particular vehicle in Thessaloniki was not.
Crucially, of course, this does not mean that Google was looking to save on its car insurance – many of the vehicles it operates are owned by contractors. Indeed anyone can theoretically contribute to Street View imagery – even with a high quality camera on a backpack.
Still, the issue of uninsured vehicles in Greece is a serious one – it is estimated that more than 500,000 vehicles are on its roads without the mandatory level of cover. Indeed there are larger problems in Greece too as many of these vehicles also fail to meet the mandatory inspection – similar to an MOT – albeit no official numbers have been released.
There have been multiple bills proposed to address the issue – one of which is the creation of a digital database for both insurance cover and inspections. However, to date, the regulators have not adopted these solutions.
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