The search engine giant works not only to increase its profits and turnover, but also works to improve the well-being of human beings. Air pollution has become a major problem in recent years and no organization has yet managed to overcome it, but now Google has taken the initiative. To do this the company has decided to equip its Google Street View cars with environmental sensors.
These sensors will measure the levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, soot particles, methane, suspended particles, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide and volatile organic compounds.
Google is not working alone in this program; it has teamed up with US start-up named Aclima, which equips Google Street View cars with environmental sensors. The tests have already been conducted in the city of Denver with three Google Street View cars with environmental sensors.
In partnership with NASA and the US Agency for Environmental Protection, the experiment was conducted for 750 hours to collect 150 million data points each day at different locations in the city. Currently, the EPA depends on an extensive network of stationary equipments to monitor the quality of air.
Dan Costa, the EPA’s Research Director, said the Google-Aclima interaction is “an obvious next step and a perfect way to move this whole science forward.”
Davida Herzl, CEO of Aclima, said:
“Our hope is that one day this info is as accessible as the weather, that you can access this information on daily basis and that together we can make billions and billions of smarter decisions that add up to change.”
Aclima has also revealed that the company has been regulating the indoor environment within 21 Google offices worldwide, for several years now. It measures all air quality aspects such as emissions, humidity and temperature.
Google and Aclima are planning to continue the experiment this fall in San Francisco. Ultimately, the Google Street View cars with environmental sensors could be used in the entire United States.