South Africa is the right destination to experience true existence of aesthetically beautiful culture and off-course the wild life. This might not come as a shocker- South Africa has roads with slush, rocks and gravel which are not mapped on Google Street. This means that you are on your own and its easy to get lost. Exploring places would be a fun activity but a tough task too.
Popular tyre brand Dunlop took up the challenge to embark a journey into the unknown to prove that tyres can take you to places where Google Street cannot. This ambitious project is conducted to find and map new roads for the smooth and better functioning of Google Street.
Riaz Haffejee, CEO of Sumitomo Rubber South Africa, manufacturer of Dunlop Tyres says, “With the help of technology, we are playing our part in opening up the economy and the tourism sector again – showcasing the proverbial road less travelled and making it safer for travelers planning their journeys.”
Google recently opened access to the Street View platforms, allowing for third party entities to publish street view footage and support user generated content. The raw Grandtrek Uncharted 360 footage has captured nine destinations by using the GoPro Max. The GPS co-ordinates and extracted, embedded and saved out to Street Builder to create street view files, these files are then uploaded to receive Google's approval and finally are published live. The expedition resulted in collection of over 1 terabyte of files which were uploaded to Street View.
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“The vehicles on the venture were fitted with tyres from the Dunlop Grandtrek range to allow for the mix of roads from tar and gravel to rough terrain only the most adventurous explorer would consider tackling,” said Haffejee.
He added, “now anyone who wants to travel to these previously unchartered, beautiful destinations across our country can do so and ensure, by viewing the Google Street View visuals available online, that they are not caught short with ill-suited vehicles or tyres on their journey.”
Haffejee says: “We wanted to capture, with a modern twist, some of the spirit of the adventurers who, in the old days, would map out the new places they discovered. Our goal was to encourage South Africans to go places that until now, Google had not yet been. This has been a unique opportunity and something no other tyre manufacturer has ever done.”
Now you too can witness from the comfort of your home the Grandtrek Uncharted 360-degree footage which has been uploaded to the Google Street View platform. To view the footage, as well as the destinations visited, visit www.grandtrek.co.za.
