History of Google Street View / Botswana
In February 2012, Google Africa announced that it was sending a number of cars to map several cities and roads in Botswana.[1] At a conference with Botswana's former Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Jeff Ramsay, he explained that the country's inclusion in Street View was to better promote tourism.[2]
In November 2012, Google officially added Botswana to Google Street View, making it the second African country to receive coverage after South Africa. In addition, parts of both Chobe and Makgadikgadi Pans National Park were covered. Ory Okolloh, policy manager for Google Sub-saharan Africa, explained that the street view images in the country would help people to better plan safaris and promote local businesses.[3]
In addition, Google was assisted by members of the Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) to protect the car's photographic equipment when recording sand roads in the country's reserves.[4] In mid-April 2012, it was confirmed that Google Street View vehicles were driving around the Tachila Nature Reserve located in the North East District near Francistown.[5]
In early May 2012, the Google Street View vehicles began photographing part of the Tsodilo Hills (Setswana: Lefelo la Tsodilo) located in the North East District, in addition to the Tuli Game Reserve (Setswana: Lefelo la Diphologolo la Tuli) in the Central District. In the same month, Khama Rhino Sanctuary was also photographed.
In mid-September 2012, the Google Street View vehicle partially drove along the shore of Lake Ngami (Setswana: Letsha la Ngami) in the North East District.
Google used cars imported from South Africa to film other neighboring countries including Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho from 2012 to 2013. Google informed South African tech outlets that the car model they were going to use to cover both Botswana and South Africa was a Chevrolet Captiva, designed to cover major cities and some roads in national parks.[6]
History
Note: We take into account the date when the coverage was taken, not the date when it was published.
Source: Botswana's Coverage Dates - Emily Geo Website
| Year | Additions |
|---|---|
| 2012 |
|
Gallery
Gen 3 Cameras
External Resources
- Botswana at Google Street View Cars Mapped (Gen 3 Edition)
- Imgur Gallery
References
Mgwili, F. & Taylor, J. "Street View comes to beautiful Botswana" (2012) Google Africa Blog.
"Google Street View to launch in Botswana" (2012) Space Daily.
"Botswana becomes second African country to be on Google Street View" (2012) Mining & Travel Botswana.
"Helping save the Google street view car which got stuck in some deep sand." (2012-09-12) Cheetah Conservation Botswana on Facebook (Archived Version)
"Google pay a visit to #Tachila" (2012-04-18) @TachilaBotswana via Twitter
"Street View coming to Botswana" (2012-02-06) Tech Central South Africa
