Main Events

• Africa got a major update with 3 fully updated countries and a new country.
• September 2022 coverage is now available in Argentina, Luxembourg, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
• No list update happened this week.

Major Update: Africa

Last week Google released a major update for three African countries: Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal. A new country was also added: Rwanda. This update was released for the Google for Africa event held last week.

In Kenya the coverage got extended in the north and the east, with notable additions to areas close to South Sudan, Ethiopia and even Somalia. Those areas were mostly covered on main roads and few cities but this is to be expected as they are not populated a lot. In the south and the west however the coverage is now very dense in the most populated areas.

Nigeria is the country which got the largest extension, with coverage now spreading all over the country. Previously it was only limited in the south. Unlike the two other countries, Nigeria also got new gen 3 coverage in the south and the east while the southwest, the center and the northeast got gen 4. Unfortunately the north and northwest got covered with a third-party camera similar to the one used in India, leading to a huge difference in image quality compared to the rest of the country.

Finally in Senegal the urban areas were covered thoroughly, notably is large cities such as Dakar or Touba where almost all the streets were imaged. The major extension is south of The Gambia as this area didn’t even have coverage before. A few roads were also added close to the borders with Mauritania and Mali.
It is also worth to note that Google drove a bit in Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia, as the borders are wrongly traced on Google Maps.

The following image shows how much the coverage grew in those countries:

And with this huge update comes a new country: Rwanda. This is a rare event in the history of Street View as in the past years almost no new countries were added. The previous one was two years ago with two cities in the Dominican Republic. And not only it is the first country to only have gen 4 coverage, it is also the country with the fastest release ever: only to months between the start of the imagery capture and its release. Google went fast as they wanted to release Rwanda along with the updates in Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal in time for the Google for Africa event.

Currently only parts of Kigali are covered in Rwanda. Google rushed the release, leaving out many areas that still need to be published. It is unknown if Google still drives in Rwanda and if more regions and towns are planned.

Overall this update is one of the most impressive ones ever. The only downside (along with the third-party camera used in Nigeria) is how the camera was badly placed on the vehicles. They used the Trekker on a pickup but the camera is placed too low, making it capture the vehicle roof a lot and resulting of it being visible a lot on the pictures. This is not ideal for immersion. Sometimes Google managed to blur the vehicle correctly but in many areas it will be visible such as this:

Continuous Updates

Last week updates were found in 31 countries. Most of the countries are the usual ones you can find in the list below, mostly with imagery update and a few new roads or streets.

In Turkey, new areas were covered in the southeast. Like in Canada only a few bits were published, meaning more coverage can appear in the future.

In Brazil, new coverage started to appear in the center and the west, notably within the states of Mato Grosse and Rondônia. The state of Amazonas also got an update found in the town of Humaitá. Again the new data is not fully published yet.

Finally, in the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines, many new roads were added:

Country	Subdivisions
Argentina	Buenos Aires, Misiones, Santa Fe
Australia	Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania
Austria	Carinthia, Styria
Brazil	Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Tocantins
Canada	British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Québec, Yukon
Chile	Bio Bio, Maule, O’Higgins, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Valparaíso
Colombia	Antioquia, Boyaca, Casanare, Santander, Tolima
Czechia	Hradec Králové, Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc, South Bohemian, South Moravian, Vysočina
France	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Centre-Val de Loire, Normandy, Pays de la Loire
Hungary	Csongrád, Fejér, Komárom-Esztergom, Pest
India	Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttarakhand
Indonesia	Bali, North Sulawesi
Italy	Lombardy, Sicily
Japan	Hokkaido
Kenya	Baringo, Garissa, Homa Bay, Kajiado, Kiambu, Kilifi, Kitui, Kwale, Marsabit, Migori, Mombasa, Muranga, Nairobi, Nakuru, Narok, Nyandarua, Samburu, Siaya, Taita-Taveta, Turkana, Wajir
Luxembourg	Capellen, Clervaux, Diekirch, Echternach, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, Mersch
Netherlands	Limburg
New Zealand	Canterbury
Nigeria	Abia, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba
Norway	Troms og Finnmark
Philippines	Caraga, Central Visayas, Davao
Portugal	Porto
Romania	Alba, Argeș, Brașov, Bistrița-Năsăud, Buzău, Constanța, Covasna, Mureș, Vrancea
Rwanda	Kigali
Senegal	Dakar, Diourbel, Fatick, Kaffrine, Kaolack, Kédougou, Kolda, Louga, Matam, Saint-Louis, Sédhiou, Tambacounda, Thiès, Ziguinchor
South Africa	Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Western Cape
Spain	Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Galicia
Sri Lanka	Central, Eastern, Northern, North Central, Uva
Sweden	Norrbotten, Skåne
Turkey	Batman, Bitlis, Burdur, Edirne, Kayseri, Mardin, Muş, Nevşehir
United States	New York, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming

Note: information is gathered from the community, assisted with tools, as Google do not provide any information: it may be incomplete but should be reliable.

Google Car Spotting

Last week Google Street View cameras were reported 106 times by people from 25 different countries.

After a few months without update, Google seems to drive again in Bangladesh. The wet season is ending so they may be able to drive again in good conditions.

Country	Subdivisions
Australia	Queensland
Austria	Vienna
Bangladesh	Dhaka
Brazil	Bahia, Pará, Paraná, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo
Canada	Saskatchewan
Chile	O’Higgins
Colombia	Bogota, Valle del Cauca
France	Pays de la Loire
Germany	and more*
Indonesia	East Java, Central Java, Jakarta, Lampung, Special Region of Yogyakarta, West Java and more*
Italy	Lazio, Sicily
Japan	Fukuoka, Gifu, Hokkaido, Kanagawa, Miyazaki, Tokyo and more*
Mexico	Colima, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Veracruz, Yucatán and more*
Netherlands	South Holland
New Zealand	Canterbury
Philippines	Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
Poland	West Pomeranian
Romania	Bucharest, Cluj and more*
South Africa	Western Cape and more*
Spain	Aragon, Balearic Islands, Galicia, Valencian Community and more*
Sweden	Skåne, Stockholm, Uppsala
Switzerland	Zürich
Thailand	Pattani, Surin and more*
United Kingdom	England
United States	Arizona, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and more*

Note: information is gathered from social networks and news. Information may be not verified and may include reports older than a week (but never older than one month)