The distinctive, high-tech cars that Google LLC uses to collect data for Street View will soon take much more than just photographs.

The technology giant today announced plans to equip the vehicles with air quality sensors as part of a new initiative to provide better insight into pollution levels worldwide. Google is sourcing the sensors from a San Francisco-based startup called Aclima Inc. that recently raised $24 million in funding.

According to the companies, the initiative builds on more than three years of preliminary testing. Street View cars equipped with Aclima traveled some 100,000 miles in California as part of the trial, collecting more than a billion data points along the way. The information was used to create air quality maps accurate down to individual streets as part of a scientific study published earlier this year.

Google plans to launch the project with 50 Street View cars to start. The vehicles will be equipped with an improved iteration of Aclima’s sensors that can detect a half-dozen different air pollutants.

The information that the companies will end up collecting could prove immensely valuable. Not only can Aclima’s sensors provide pollution data on a block-by-block basis, but the fact that Google regularly updates Street View means the measurements will likely be refreshed relatively frequently as well.

Such granular insight could potentially help researchers gain a better understanding of air quality issues in areas for which detailed data is currently unavailable. Moreover, the information may come handy for municipal authorities as well. Aclima founder Davida Herzl told TechCrunch that she sees the data being used in fields such as urban planning to reduce residents’ exposure to pollution.

“As air pollution and climate emissions pose an urgent challenge to human and planetary health, partnering with Google to scale Aclima’s environmental intelligence platform in Street View cars will activate awareness about local air quality in communities around the world where this information doesn’t currently exist,” Herzl added in a statement.

According to Google and Aclima, the sensor-packed cars will hit the road in the United States and Europe this fall. The technology giant plans to make the collected data available to scientists via its cloud-based BigQuery analytics service.

In parallel, Google is working with another sensor maker called Air Monitors Ltd. to provide more detailed air pollution data for London. The initiative will involve two Street View cars and some 100 stationary sensor pods that are set to be affixed to lamp posts.

Photo: Google