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I wonder what it costs to get these images, and if you could get them more cheaply by flying drones? I guess that would require a presence in a lot of places th

I wonder what it costs to get these images, and if you could get them more cheaply by flying drones? I guess that would require a presence in a lot of places though. . . . Still, maybe you could focus on just a few cities, and get pictures more frequently than you'd get with satellites? Maybe there is an opportunity there.

timthelion 10y ago
I don't know the cost, but you can get the images here: https://spaceknow.com/ https://spaceknow.com/
twinkletwinkle 10y ago
Drones could fly under cloud cover also. Satellite photos are probably less useful for Seattle than for Denver.
dyarosla 10y ago
I agree with you; I also think there's an opportunity here. I wonder what the biggest cost would be to such a company. Maintenance?
nibb0r 10y ago
Note that to acquire imagery you don't necessarily need to request a new one be shot. Historical imagery often covers what you need, depending on what part of the globe you want to see, and when. Each image with sample distance to differentiate cars seems to be $10-$48 each.
gydfi 10y ago
By the time you've paid for a drone and someone to fly it in each city, you might as well just pay someone minimum wage to drive around photographing the lots from ground level. It'd probably work out cheaper.
- duderific 10y ago
  That probably wouldn't work for image analysis however, since it would be hard to see all the cars in the lot from ground level.
  - mbreese 10y ago
    If you drove a Google Street View-style car up and down a mall parking lot, you'd get a lot of information. I doubt that a more in-depth sweep would cost significantly more to do than to just do a single drive by. The biggest cost would be driving to the parking lot in the first place. And if you were trying to collect information, you'd be able to get a lot more info from the license plate numbers or the make/models of cars. You could also get information on employment by looking for which cars are parked where, since store employees typically have to park further from the entrance. There's a lot of information that you could get from ground-level that you miss at satellite level. The real question is - is it worth it?
big_youth 10y ago
Rather than drones use large blimps, like google was planning to do with project loon.

timthelion 10y ago

I don't know the cost, but you can get the images here: https://spaceknow.com/ https://spaceknow.com/

twinkletwinkle 10y ago

Drones could fly under cloud cover also. Satellite photos are probably less useful for Seattle than for Denver.

dyarosla 10y ago

I agree with you; I also think there's an opportunity here. I wonder what the biggest cost would be to such a company. Maintenance?

nibb0r 10y ago

Note that to acquire imagery you don't necessarily need to request a new one be shot. Historical imagery often covers what you need, depending on what part of the globe you want to see, and when. Each image with sample distance to differentiate cars seems to be $10-$48 each.

gydfi 10y ago

By the time you've paid for a drone and someone to fly it in each city, you might as well just pay someone minimum wage to drive around photographing the lots from ground level. It'd probably work out cheaper.

duderific 10y ago
That probably wouldn't work for image analysis however, since it would be hard to see all the cars in the lot from ground level.
- mbreese 10y ago
  If you drove a Google Street View-style car up and down a mall parking lot, you'd get a lot of information. I doubt that a more in-depth sweep would cost significantly more to do than to just do a single drive by. The biggest cost would be driving to the parking lot in the first place. And if you were trying to collect information, you'd be able to get a lot more info from the license plate numbers or the make/models of cars. You could also get information on employment by looking for which cars are parked where, since store employees typically have to park further from the entrance. There's a lot of information that you could get from ground-level that you miss at satellite level. The real question is - is it worth it?

big_youth 10y ago

Rather than drones use large blimps, like google was planning to do with project loon.