6 ms·

Google Straps Aclima Sensors to Street View Cars to Map Air Pollution

79 points by Zweihander 11y ago

candeira 11y ago
This is going to be interesting for many cities, but I can speak to the case of Madrid. The Partido Popular government fixed the pollution problem by moving the sensors out of busy streets and into big parks that happen to be within the city limits[1,2]. The historical continuity of measurements has been lost, but Google will now provide data with more continuity. Or at least I hope it is provided. [1] http://elpais.com/diario/2009/05/18/madrid/1242645857_850215.html http://elpais.com/diario/2009/05/18/madrid/1242645857_850215... [2] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/022cf59c-3091-11e0-9de3-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/022cf59c-3091-11e0-9de3-00144feabd...
shawnps 11y ago
This is the site I usually check: http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/ http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/ Also, if I needed it, I'd probably build one of these: http://smartairfilters.com/en.html http://smartairfilters.com/en.html
x5n1 11y ago
Now we're getting to SimCity level of coolness.
nimos 11y ago
Neat but doesn't pollution vary significantly day to day and seasonally? It seems like one drive through at random time/day/season wouldn't be enough data to be meaningful.
- melling 11y ago
  They seem to understand that: "In the first pilot, three Street View cars collected 150 million air quality data points over a month of driving around Denver, Colorado. They measured for chemicals that are hazardous to breathe, like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, particulate matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)."
- ellisv 11y ago
  It seems to me that they can do repeated measures (coinciding with updating street view). I'm more interested in how this will account for the fact that the monitor is on a car which is itself a source of pollution, no?
  - dsfyu404ed 11y ago
    Who that car is following and how long the spend sitting at red lights (or in traffic leaving a light) would likely have a larger effect. If you have enough data points you can reliably correct for it but there's still gonna be exception cases like the industrial area that's polluted during the day and the adjacent down that the wind blows the pollution to at night (Google doesn't drive street view cars at night AFAIK). I don't know how much Google takes season into account when routing street view cars but areas with a tourism industry would be cleaner in the off season and colder areas will be dirtier in the winter (more fuel used for heating, less trees). Also something that could be accounted for...
blahblahblahyo 11y ago
jojoba
octo_t 11y ago
Sounds like something related to Sidewalk Labs[1]? http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dan-doctoroff-and-google-announce-sidewalk-labs-300097255.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dan-doctoroff-and-go...
comrade1 11y ago
Why not just, I don't know, install a permanent sensor. This doesn't seem very useful unless these cars are driving the same route every day.
- cma 11y ago
  Because they are already driving anyway and this achieves extremely high spatial density compared with a few scattered immobile sensors (it isn't dense when viewed spatio-temporally, but there are plenty of uses and nothing stops you from also fusing data with static sensors).
- IanCal 11y ago
  Well, there are a few reasons here. 1. Installing a permanent sensor means ensuring some power source 2. Any kind of planning / permissions needed to sort it out 3. They're fixed The first two simply aren't problems if you whack them on a car. No approval needed, no lengthy agreements about the look & impact of placing them around. Three is really important. While the same money spent on fixed sensors gives greater time resolution, it'll give worse spatial resolution. Is it worth sticking a permanent sensor down to find out that actually the pollution levels never get high enough to be a problem? How many side-roads will get covered? > This doesn't seem very useful A huge amount of spatially dense readings across cities? That doesn't seem like it might be useful to you?
  - comrade1 11y ago
    How often does a google car go past a location? I always assumed it was less than once a year based on how often they update street view where I live. Plus, you have no idea what time of day the car will be passing through a location. So you can't compare the data points over time - they're not taken the same time of day. And I'm not sure if you can even compare different regions - your data may tell you that one part of the city has cleaner air than another, but it's only because one part of the city was measured in the morning and another part of the city in the afternoon.
    - IanCal 11y ago
pingec 11y ago
Great. But I think Google will not show up where I live in a while so where can one buy these Aclima sensors? Also I hope they expand measurements to other parameters like particle pollution. Monitoring pollution is a taboo topic in our city because it would show that the port pollutes a lot and of course money is more important than public health.
- SEJeff 11y ago
  The article mentioned they are measuring particulates. That is exactly what you're hoping they expand, so good news! They already will be measuring that.
MarkMc 11y ago
As someone spending a large amount of time in India I am very concerned about the extreme pollution level there. This was the best country-wide data I could find on pollution: http://imgur.com/sPtkwDj http://imgur.com/sPtkwDj I would love it if Google could produce something more accurate!
- known 11y ago
  http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/09/heres-where-youre-most-likely-die-air-pollution/6946/ http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/09/heres-where-youre-most-l...
skatenerd 11y ago
Possibly unrelated, but if you are interested in the geography of Chinese air pollution, check out aqicn.org
deepGem 11y ago
This is great to see. We are prototyping something similar - want to deploy static sensors instead of strapping the sensors to vehicles. We initially thought about the vehicle option by partnering with Uber/Lyft. Definitely cost effective but getting relevant data from the same location at different time slices will become a function of the vehicle's presence at that location and time. A bit difficult to manage with a vehicle fleet whose primary function is something else. Worth further exploration though.
PointerReaper 11y ago
I hope they find a way to add this to a portable device for end users. Here in DC I've suspected the air in the metro stations (underground train) is many times worse than the above ground sampling.

79 points by Zweihander 11y ago

This is going to be interesting for many cities, but I can speak to the case of Madrid. The Partido Popular government fixed the pollution problem by moving the sensors out of busy streets and into big parks that happen to be within the city limits[1,2]. The historical continuity of measurements has been lost, but Google will now provide data with more continuity. Or at least I hope it is provided. [1] http://elpais.com/diario/2009/05/18/madrid/1242645857_850215.html http://elpais.com/diario/2009/05/18/madrid/1242645857_850215... [2] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/022cf59c-3091-11e0-9de3-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/022cf59c-3091-11e0-9de3-00144feabd...

shawnps 11y ago

This is the site I usually check: http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/ http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/ Also, if I needed it, I'd probably build one of these: http://smartairfilters.com/en.html http://smartairfilters.com/en.html

x5n1 11y ago

Now we're getting to SimCity level of coolness.

nimos 11y ago

Neat but doesn't pollution vary significantly day to day and seasonally? It seems like one drive through at random time/day/season wouldn't be enough data to be meaningful.

melling 11y ago
They seem to understand that: "In the first pilot, three Street View cars collected 150 million air quality data points over a month of driving around Denver, Colorado. They measured for chemicals that are hazardous to breathe, like nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, particulate matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)."
ellisv 11y ago
It seems to me that they can do repeated measures (coinciding with updating street view). I'm more interested in how this will account for the fact that the monitor is on a car which is itself a source of pollution, no?
- dsfyu404ed 11y ago
  Who that car is following and how long the spend sitting at red lights (or in traffic leaving a light) would likely have a larger effect. If you have enough data points you can reliably correct for it but there's still gonna be exception cases like the industrial area that's polluted during the day and the adjacent down that the wind blows the pollution to at night (Google doesn't drive street view cars at night AFAIK). I don't know how much Google takes season into account when routing street view cars but areas with a tourism industry would be cleaner in the off season and colder areas will be dirtier in the winter (more fuel used for heating, less trees). Also something that could be accounted for...

blahblahblahyo 11y ago

jojoba

octo_t 11y ago

Sounds like something related to Sidewalk Labs[1]? http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dan-doctoroff-and-google-announce-sidewalk-labs-300097255.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dan-doctoroff-and-go...

comrade1 11y ago

Why not just, I don't know, install a permanent sensor. This doesn't seem very useful unless these cars are driving the same route every day.

cma 11y ago
Because they are already driving anyway and this achieves extremely high spatial density compared with a few scattered immobile sensors (it isn't dense when viewed spatio-temporally, but there are plenty of uses and nothing stops you from also fusing data with static sensors).
IanCal 11y ago
Well, there are a few reasons here. 1. Installing a permanent sensor means ensuring some power source 2. Any kind of planning / permissions needed to sort it out 3. They're fixed The first two simply aren't problems if you whack them on a car. No approval needed, no lengthy agreements about the look & impact of placing them around. Three is really important. While the same money spent on fixed sensors gives greater time resolution, it'll give worse spatial resolution. Is it worth sticking a permanent sensor down to find out that actually the pollution levels never get high enough to be a problem? How many side-roads will get covered? > This doesn't seem very useful A huge amount of spatially dense readings across cities? That doesn't seem like it might be useful to you?
- comrade1 11y ago
  How often does a google car go past a location? I always assumed it was less than once a year based on how often they update street view where I live. Plus, you have no idea what time of day the car will be passing through a location. So you can't compare the data points over time - they're not taken the same time of day. And I'm not sure if you can even compare different regions - your data may tell you that one part of the city has cleaner air than another, but it's only because one part of the city was measured in the morning and another part of the city in the afternoon.
  - IanCal 11y ago

pingec 11y ago

Great. But I think Google will not show up where I live in a while so where can one buy these Aclima sensors? Also I hope they expand measurements to other parameters like particle pollution. Monitoring pollution is a taboo topic in our city because it would show that the port pollutes a lot and of course money is more important than public health.

SEJeff 11y ago
The article mentioned they are measuring particulates. That is exactly what you're hoping they expand, so good news! They already will be measuring that.

MarkMc 11y ago

As someone spending a large amount of time in India I am very concerned about the extreme pollution level there. This was the best country-wide data I could find on pollution: http://imgur.com/sPtkwDj http://imgur.com/sPtkwDj I would love it if Google could produce something more accurate!

known 11y ago
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/09/heres-where-youre-most-likely-die-air-pollution/6946/ http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/09/heres-where-youre-most-l...

skatenerd 11y ago

Possibly unrelated, but if you are interested in the geography of Chinese air pollution, check out aqicn.org

deepGem 11y ago

This is great to see. We are prototyping something similar - want to deploy static sensors instead of strapping the sensors to vehicles. We initially thought about the vehicle option by partnering with Uber/Lyft. Definitely cost effective but getting relevant data from the same location at different time slices will become a function of the vehicle's presence at that location and time. A bit difficult to manage with a vehicle fleet whose primary function is something else. Worth further exploration though.

PointerReaper 11y ago

I hope they find a way to add this to a portable device for end users. Here in DC I've suspected the air in the metro stations (underground train) is many times worse than the above ground sampling.