Google DeepMind has transformed 20 years of Street View photography into an advanced generative world model named Genie 3. This remarkable iteration can process Street View imagery to create interactive and navigable 3D simulations of actual locations around the world.
The underlying system relies on an extensive library containing 280 billion images from 110 countries, providing Genie 3 with a vast visual memory of much of Earth's landscape. Users can simply input a Street View image of any locale, such as a bustling neighborhood in Tokyo or a scenic highway in rural Montana, and the model will generate a real-time simulated 3D environment, boasting a performance of 24 frames per second at a resolution of 720p.
Previous versions of Genie, such as Genie 2, allowed users to create playable environments based on text prompts and artificial images. In contrast, Genie 3 brings a significant upgrade by anchoring generated worlds to real places.
Waymo, Google's self-driving car unit, has already begun utilizing Genie 3. The technology aids in simulating rare driving scenarios critical for training autonomous vehicles. For instance, dangerous edge cases, like a cyclist disobeying traffic signals at a complex intersection, can be recreated from Street View data and varied infinitely within the model.
The journey of Genie 3 from a research project to a fully-fledged product commenced with a research preview in August 2025, followed by a consumer version in January 2026. The integration of Street View features, announced on May 19, 2026, marks a significant leap in capabilities since the project's inception.
Initially, this advanced feature access is limited to select Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States. However, Google has plans to expand availability globally in the near future, although an exact timeline remains unspecified.
The implications for Genie 3 extend beyond autonomous driving. Google envisions applications in gaming, robotics training, and education, highlighting the versatile potential of this innovative technology.