Weird Car Spotted All Over Western New York

If you have been driving the highways and roads in Western New York over the past couple of weeks, you might have noticed a very weird-looking car driving around you.

I was driving along Southwestern Blvd in Hamburg when I noticed this car that looked like a spaceship. It was moving along with traffic but was very odd looking because it had a giant camera on top of it.

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It turns out that this was an Apple Maps Car. It seems this year, Apple has sent out these cars all over the country to map out the roadways and highways to update its GPS app Apple Maps.

It turns out that Western New York is on the schedule to be mapped out by the end of the year.

According to Apple's Website, there will be thousands of cars and vehicles out and about mapping for the tech company.

Apple is conducting ground surveys with vehicles around the world to collect data to improve Apple Maps and to support the Look Around feature. Vehicle surveys may use equipment mounted on the outside of vehicles as well as iPhones, iPads, or other devices inside of vehicles.

The data and photos collected will be used for Apple Maps' GPS and for the new Apple Lookaround feature which is kind of like Google's Streetview.

If you are concerned about your privacy as one of these Apple Maps cars drives by, Apple has some steps it will follow to make sure it will protect people's identities as best as possible.

We are committed to protecting your privacy while conducting these surveys. For example, we will censor faces and license plates on images that are published in Look Around. If you have comments or questions about this process, your privacy rights, or would like to request that a face, license plate, or your own house be censored, please contact us.

So if you happen to be caught on camera by one of these cars, you can contact Apple to make sure you are protected. The Apple Maps project is expected to conclude at the end of the year.