Did Google's Street View car run over a Donkey in Botswana?

After looking at the photo on the right, do you think Google's Street View car ran over the donkey? Keep reading to find out. On January 14, a physicist from Caltech tweeted a link to this Street View map on Google saying "I think google street view ran over a donkey in Botswana." Thanks to the power of social media this spread around the web pretty quickly and many people started "ass-uming" things about Google and the donkey.

No, Google's Street View car did not run over this donkey! Fortunately this donkey got away in one piece. In a post titled "Never Ass-ume," Kei Kawai, a Group Project Manager of Google Maps said "I’m pleased to confirm the donkey is alive and well" and published photographic evidence showing that the donkey got back up on it's feet and walked away.

So what was the donkey doing lying in the path of the Google Street View car? It was probably just enjoying a dust bath.