Different Maps

Suppose for a moment that the GoogleCar is a bit like a probe-head, scanning a surface. What you get is, at one level (that of a user employing the standard interface) a map composed of "tubes" (Glenn's image) whose interior is covered with stitched-together images. But if you pull back, and abstract from this, you get other maps. For example, the map featured on the Street View wikipedia page, which shows (in terms of countries visited) where the Car has been (dark blue) is planning to go (light blue) and is not currently "interested in".

There you get a map of "commercial interest", or a map of "security issues", or however you'd prefer to frame it. But suppose you were to focus on the UK for a moment, and you produced a reasonably high resolution map of the country showing places GoogleCar had been to and had not been to, and showing (via colour coding) the reason for its not having gone there. Suppose you allowed one colour (grey, as per the above map) for places which GoogleCar is not currently particularly drawn to... but used other colours to symbolise the reasons why GoogleCar has been actively excluded from going to a given location? For example, government installations are black, gated communities are red, private roads yellow, places like Broughton, Bucks that relied on force majeure to keep the Car at bay are a violent purple, and so on...

So, you'd end up with a "scanned" image like a thermogram, but registering, rather than temperature, but variations in effective privacy in the UK (or whatever country you choose)...