News is that Google has licensed technology used by Stanford’s Stanley robot car winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge that they plan to use in order to create 3D maps of cities. The new data will be used to augment the maps currently available at maps.google.com and are supposed to rival the 3D maps published by Microsoft on their online maps service Virtual Earth. Apparently, Stanford researcher Sebastian Thrun will also work part-time for Google as part of the deal. There was rumors last March that Thrun’s stealth startup Vutool was being acquired by Google although no official information was made available at the time. Vutool had undertaken the task of mapping cities from street level using a fleet of cars equipped with a number of cameras and laser sensors. Other colleagues of Thrun’s in Europe are also working in creating 3D maps of cities in a similar way; see for example our previous coverage of the SmartTek project.