Google Street View is morphing into a bit of a social butterfly as of late with notable visits to some of the world's most breathtaking places. The company can soon check another destination off the bucket list as Google's Street View equipment will be hitting a number of hiking trails in the Aloha State.
Through a partnership with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB), Google will loan their Street View Trekker equipment to local tour guides to help map the landscape. Google said the partnership is perfect to introduce their Trekker loan pilot program.
The first phase of the program is scheduled to kick off this month and will see Google loan equipment to tourism company Hawaii Forest and Trail (HFT). This company was chosen based on their impeccable reputation, decades of experience in the tourism business and their capable staff according to Jay Talwar, HVCB's chief marketing officer.
Tour guides will initially help find appropriate trails and provide the manpower necessary to carry the 40-pound Trekker camera pack in order to capture imagery. A team from Google Street View has been on location for the past week to help introduce the Trekker hardware to the HFT staff.
The hiking team is expected to start collecting usable images next month and wrap things up sometime during the fall. We are told that the first set of images should be hitting Google Maps later this year although an exact date wasn't given.