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2nd Big list update: Google confirms updated coverage in Puerto Rico and more!

A new country, three countries getting their first Gen 4, and three countries getting major updates!

After a slight delay, Google has released another major list update this week! It features several new countries, such Uruguay, Cyprus and Albania. Furthermore, the previous additions of Paraguay, Ghana and Costa Rica have been updated to include additional unexpected towns and regions. Most surprisingly, it has been confirmed, that Puerto Rico will be updated for the first time since 2016!

CountryRegions
🇵🇷 Puerto RicoCaguas, San Juán
🇨🇷 Costa RicaAlajuela, Puntarenas
🇨🇾 CyprusNicosia, Paphos, Larnaca, Limassol
🇦🇱 AlbaniaFier, Elbasan, Tirana, Gjirokaster, Korçë, Vlorë  
🇺🇾 UruguayMontevideo
🇵🇾 ParaguayCanindeyú, Caaguazú, Alto Paraná, Itapúa, Misiones
🇬🇭 GhanaAccra, Kumasi, Eastern, Central

🇵🇷 Puerto Rico

After years of limited Gen 3 coverage, Google has finally announced updated Gen 4 coverage for Puerto Rico. Currently, Google is planning to cover the city and municipality of Caguas, along with the capital of San Juan from November 2024 to December 2024. Several new / partially covered towns and neighbourhoods in the municipality of Caguas have been added

Based on the current list, it’s expected that the rest of the country will be covered in 2025, and we could see full Gen 4 coverage released by then.

Towns listed in Puerto Rico, currently only in San Juan and Caguas. Red denotes completely new towns, Yellow denotes towns with only partial coverage and Blue denotes mostly full coverage.

🇨🇷 Costa Rica

Costa Rica was added in the previous major list update, but only towns near the capital of San José were listed. In this list update, several new towns on the western coast were added, in the provinces of Alajuela and Puntarenas, although these towns are still pretty close to capital. Coverage in these towns will be done from November to December 2024.

New towns listed in Costa Rica. The image on the left shows the newly listed towns, while the image on the right shows the towns included in the previous list update

🇺🇾 Uruguay

Uruguay, previously confirmed via a blog post has now been added to the list. Currently, they are scheduled to drive in Montevideo from November this year until January 2025. We can expect, that the rest of the country will be updated in the future.

Currently, only the capital, Montevideo, has been listed

🇨🇾 Cyprus

Google has finally confirmed that they’re finally covering Cyprus after months of speculation. Currently, all towns listed are in the southern half of the island, primarily near the four largest cities and Mount Olympus. So far, no coverage in Northern Cyprus has been announced, but this doesn’t remain out of the realm of possibility, especially if they intend to cover the island more extensively next year.

As Cyprus was announced alongside Serbia and Albania, the process is likely to be similar. It is expected to be done via a pickup (or a regular car), taking 4-6 months and covering all paved roads, although the details may still change.

Towns listed for coverage in Cyprus

🇦🇱 Albania

Google has finally confirmed that the country of Albania will be updated. This was somewhat expected, due to a driving job offer in July. So far, the list update only includes places that will be updated this november, such as the towns of Fier, Elbasan, Tirana, Gjirokastër, Korçë, and Vlorë. All of them are already have Gen 3 coverage, but we can expect Google to drive the country more extensively next year.

Currently, the coverage announced is only for November 2024.

Based on previous information, it appears to be similar to Serbian and the aforementioned Cypriot coverage. It is likely to be done via a pickup (or a regular car), expected to take 4-6 months and cover all paved roads, although the details may still change.

Towns listed in Albania, all of them currently have Gen 3 coverage.

🇬🇭 Ghana

Ghana, a country added in the previous list update, has had its entries expanded with a few new towns near Accra. Notably, one of these towns is in the Eastern Region, which was previously not listed and only had Gen 3 coverage. All new towns are scheduled to be covered in November 2024.

Towns listed in Ghana. New towns are denoted in yellow.

🇵🇾 Paraguay

Lastly, Google has expanded its list for Paraguay, adding several new towns in the provinces of Canindeyú, Caaguazú, Alto Paraná, Itapúa, and Misiones, located in the south and east of the country. The listed towns primarily follow highways, specifically National Routes 1, 2, and 3. According to the list, coverage for these towns is scheduled between November and December 2024.

New towns listed in Paraguay. Yellow denotes new towns, Blue denotes previously listed towns.

🇰🇿 Other Updates

This list update didn’t feature much beyond the aforementioned changes, but Kazakhstan has been removed from the list. This likely indicates that coverage in Kazakhstan is either complete or has been temporarily paused for the time being.

With these list updates, it seems Google is focusing a lot more in expanding Street View to new countries, and updating previous ones at the same time rapidly. Hopefully we’ll see more updates like this from Google in the future, and especially hope that we’ll get Gen 4 from all these countries, as some have yet to be confirmed.

If you’re curious how to access this information, go to https://www.google.com/streetview/how-it-works/, and check their list, or check the tracker, where additional information can be found at https://github.com/shmugoh/gsv-list-tracker/commit/8dcff6ed84aec287ec3440984a3a382af74ec5f6.

Also, thanks to Alex* for the thumbnail!