Apple has apparently begun snagging Look Around footage in several additional countries and regions this summer.
The effort, which is being performed via Apple Maps vehicles equipped with LiDAR gear, have been sighted in Austria, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. The vehicles have also returned to Belgium to survey additional regions after focusing on the Brussels area last year.
Apple will use the data collected to improve its Maps app and expand its Look Around feature, which is currently limited to parts of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Japan. Introduced in iOS 13, Look Around is similar to Google’s Street View, providing 3D street-level imagery that can be zoomed and panned.
Where available, the feature can be accessed by tapping the binoculars button in the top-right corner of the Maps app. The feature also appears in the search results for a supported city, below the Flyover and Directions buttons.
Apple Maps vehicles first began surveying efforts in 2015, collecting data in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Singapore, Israel, and select other countries and territories.
Apple has stated that the company is committed to protecting individual privacy while conducting surveys, and routinely blurs out faces and license plates in street-level imagery made available through Look Around.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors and maps.apple.com