Who Wins When A Google Street View Car Meets A Bing Car?

Courtesy: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Courtesy: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images /
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The title of this post may sound like the beginning of a good joke, but what really did happen when a Google Street View car crossed paths with a Bing Car?

When the two competitors met on the streets of Minnesota, it seemed like one of them was more than willing to forget the encounter.

For those who may have forgotten or just didn’t know, Bing has its own version of Google Street View called Bing StreetSide.

The way Microsoft acquired its photos for Streetside is the exact same way that Google does for its Street View feature. The search engine company has cars drive around slowly with advanced cameras attached to them, while photographing buildings and stores from a street-level view.

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The original post that brought this funny encounter to light was found on Tumblr in July 2014. A recent post by The Verge, however, reminded us of the “fateful encounter” of the two mapping vehicles.

The two drivers were seen in an image waving at each other, despite being each ofher’s competition. Things, however, turned quite juvenile on one end and more mature on the other end. Can you guess which mapping car wanted to quickly block out the other? Keep reading to find out

According to BGR.com,

"“If you head on over to Google Street View for the location where the meeting of the minds occurred, we see that Google includes a crisp and clear shot of Microsoft’s Bing Car.Microsoft, though, wasn’t so eager to return the favor, going so far as to block out the existence of Google’s Street View car altogether. Taking a look at the location in question via Bing Maps, you see nothing more than a white rectangle with a camera attached to it.”"

It is quite humorous that Google is willing to admit it passed a Bing car, but the same isn’t true vice versa. Like a scorned lover, Microsoft turned to editing and put a large white rectangle over the Google car in its version of the image. It is pretty obvious, though, since you can clearly see a really big camera rig sticking out of the white block.

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This year marked the 10-year anniversary of Google Street View. The cars also recently received an upgraded look. Check out the video below to see the journey of the cars that mapped millions of miles through 80 countries.

Many of us have spotted a Google Street Car or Bing Car in our lifetime. If you have, where were you at the time of the sighting?