How Ford Mapped the Entire TransAmerica Trail for Google Street View

Ford brought along three of its off-road-focused models to help add America’s longest such trail to Google Street View.

The U.S. is chock full of off-road trails, and they continue to grow as more and more folks look to get off the beaten path and explore the wilderness – or, just test out the capability of their vehicles. Ford obviously offers quite a lot of off-road-focused models these days, all of which are quite capable in those types of situations. Thus, perhaps it’s no surprise to learn that when Google wanted to add the country’s longest off-road trail to its Street View feature, it called The Blue Oval for assistance.

Google’s typical camera-equipped Street View cars weren’t quite up to the task of covering 5,900+ miles of rugged terrain that’s known as the TransAmerica Trail, which spans the east and west coasts of the U.S. – particularly since it has no official signs, nor a single path to follow. It’s an epic journey across this country that not many folks will ever get to embark on in their lifetime, which was precisely the reason why Ford and Google wanted to bring it to the masses – virtually speaking, at least. Here’s how they did it.

The Team

This endeavor began back in August 2025, when a small team of folks from The Blue Oval started their journey across the TransAmerica Trail on the coast of Oregon. They brought along three vehicles – a Ford Bronco Badlands, a Ranger Lariat with the FX4 Off-Road Package, and the relatively new Expedition Tremor. They then set out on a nearly 6,000-mile journey covering just about any kind of terrain imaginable, a trip that ultimately took 32 days to complete – when they reached the end of the road in North Carolina.

The Bronco

The Ford Bronco Badlands used for this epic journey was tasked with capturing all of the imagery needed to add the TransAmerica Trail to Google Street View. It’s equipped with the optional Sasquatch Package, which adds quite a lot of equipment to an already-capable trim – such as an advanced 4×4 system, electronic locking front and rear diffs with a 4.7 final drive ratio, a lifted suspension, position-sensitive Bilstein shocks, and 35-inch all-terrain tires.

The Ranger

As for the Ford Ranger Lariat, its job was to help carry a few members of the crew, along with the gear they’d need for this long journey. Interestingly – as is the case with the Bronco – Ford opted not to go for the high-performance Raptor in this case, but the FX4 Off-Road Package adds enough goodies to make the mid-size pickup up for this task. Those include an electronic locking rear differential, steel bash plates, Trail Control mode, off-road tuned shocks, all-terrain tires, and two extra drive modes – Mud/Ruts, and Sand.

The Expedition

Finally, the Expedition Tremor was also used to carry crew members and various gear, rounding out the support team. The new-for-2025 Tremor model gets a bevy of goodies, including an electronic locking rear differential with 3.73 gears, the high-output version of the twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, and all-terrain tires.

Photos: Ford

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Brett Foote

Brett Foote has been covering the automotive industry for over five years and is a longtime contributor to Internet Brands’ Auto Group sites, including Chevrolet Forum, Rennlist, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts, among other popular sites.

He has been an automotive enthusiast since the day he came into this world and rode home from the hospital in a first-gen Mustang, and he's been wrenching on them nearly as long.

In addition to his expertise writing about cars, trucks, motorcycles, and every other type of automobile, Brett had spent several years running parts for local auto dealerships.

You can follow along with his builds and various automotive shenanigans on Instagram: @bfoote.