After a relatively quiet year, we finally have official confirmation of a new country receiving Street View coverage: Georgia. Notably, Georgia will also be the first nation in the Caucasus to be included in Google Street View.
Today, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia released an article confirming the launch of Google Street View in the country. Google is working in collaboration with the Ministry and the Innovation and Technology Agency to bring Google Street View to Georgia.
Similar to Kazakhstan and other countries in the region, Google has decided to use pickup trucks to cover Georgia rather than Smallcam or standard Gen 4 vehicles. Additionally, the trekker is unmarked, which will likely make spottings of the Google truck much rarer.
According to the Ministry, the current plan is to cover 15,000 kilometers—comparable to Panama’s coverage—along with 24 cities in Georgia over the next 12 months, starting in March 2025. Coverage is expected to be released in 2026, once all cities have been covered. The article mentions that roads and highways are the primary focus of this coverage, suggesting that we’ll not see as many trekkers or rural areas in this coverage.
So far, the cities of Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Akhaltsikhe, Mtskheta, Telavi, Zugdidi, Gori, Ozurgeti, and Mestia have been named, while the remaining 13 cities remain unspecified.
With Georgia set to receive coverage, it appears that Google is gradually filling gaps in Street View, particularly in Europe. Countries like Iceland, Albania, San Marino, Serbia, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and Malta have either received their first Gen 4 coverage—or are planned to receive it, with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cyprus receiving their first official coverage. Given this trend, we may soon see countries like Armenia or Moldova gaining their first coverage, even as Georgia itself faces ongoing unrest and territorial disputes, such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia.