It's more complicated than that. Among other things, it led to the open sourcing of Ceres: http://ceres-solver.org/users.html http://ceres-solver.org/users.html

It's more complicated than that. Among other things, it led to the open sourcing of Ceres: http://ceres-solver.org/users.html http://ceres-solver.org/users.html (a few clues on that page) You definitely can't use Street View data alone for objects not at ground level. Actually, sometimes there is no Street View data for a place, at all. E.g. check the planes on the runways at airports like SFO, AUS and JFK. Incidentally, the varying quality at different airports is also a hint of how easy it is to fly over each of them at the ideal altitude(s) and how often one can get the necessary permits to refresh imagery.