Using the keyboard or mouse the horizontal and vertical viewing direction and the zoom level can be selected.

Where available, street view images appear after zooming in beyond the highest zooming level in maps and satellite images, and also by dragging 'pegman' to some position. These cameras are also used by Google book search. Recent, high quality images are based on open source hardware cameras from Elphel.

On the cars there's also 3G/ GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots. On each of these cars (and tricycles) there are nine directional cameras for the 360° views, GPS units for positioning, 3 laser range scanners, manufactured by SICK, for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle. However, sometimes Google Trikes (tricycles) are used.

Pedestrian areas, narrow streets and park alleys that cannot be accessed by car are not always covered. Google Street View displays scans taken from a fleet of Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Astra or Toyota Prius cars in North America, Opel Astras in continental Europe and the United Kingdom, Holden Astras in Australia and New Zealand, Toyota Prius cars in Japan and Fiat Stilos in Brazil. Coverage is shown by dragging 'pegman' from its position, on a map of any scale. These photographs are currently available for countries including United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It was launched on May 25, 2007, and has gradually expanded to include more cities, and in these cities more streets, and also some rural areas. Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides for many streets in the world 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views from a row of positions along the street (one in every 10 or 20 meters, or so), from a height of about 2.5 meters. An intersection in Charlotte, North Carolina, showing multiple angles.

Google maps 2008 street view