Google confirms Street View tricycle on UPenn campus, reader snaps first pictures

Put on your Sunday’s best and quickly plan a practical joke to be forever immortalized online; Google Street View is back in town. On Penn’s campus, at least.
Earlier today we reported that a Technically Philly reader spotted a Google Street View tricycle roaming the University of Pennsylvania campus Wednesday, and now we have confirmation from Google and the first reader photo.
This afternoon, a spokesperson for Google said that Street View has been peddling around the UPenn campus during the past few days in a promotional partnership that provides the search giant with access to Penn’s private walks.
“[We’re partnering] with universities and colleges who say ‘this is a great chance to explore our campus in a different way,'” Sean Carlson, Google’s manager of global communications and public affairs, told Technically Philly in a telephone interview.
Carlson says that Google has recently partnered with San Diego State, University of San Diego and Penn State for similar opportunities.

Penn web designer Scott Spitzer was walking on the Ivy League’s campus earlier today when he spotted the unusual looking vehicle and snapped several photographs, one of which is pictured above. Spitzer told Technically Philly in an e-mail that representatives from Google answered questions as they rested near the trike. He was told that the Street View tricycles ride anywhere from one to 25 miles per day.
Carlson couldn’t confirm that the trikes would photograph Philly’s many street bike paths and off-road trails, but Google has been taking the well-equipped tricycle on public trails throughout Europe and in the U.S., as reported by USA Today.
Philadelphia was one of the first 15 cities in the world in which Street View was made available, five months after Street View was debuted as a feature for Google Maps globally.
There’s no word on when Penn’s Street View images will go live.