They've only done main roads in Athens for whatever reason, and they no longer take requests for updates. I would guess it will eventually cover all of Athens, but Athens County is not on their current schedule.
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/68384?hl=enThis is a national scandal. It reports that they are currently driving Butler County, the home of that suckiest of all schools. The shame of it all!
I was on I-75 driving South to Cincinnati on the 20th and saw the Google streetview car getting off the highway at the Middletown exit.
I saw it on 35 in Beavercreek on the 21st.
I now reveal myself as a low-tech guy but not afraid to ask this question: How does the Google streetview car operate?
The same way your car operates: an internal combustion engine :)
In seriousness though, Google pays people to drive around with cameras mounted on top of the car. The cameras take photos that overlap slightly so they can be stitched together into a 360 degree view. Every few years they repeat the process to update the imagery.