It has been an interesting month for Google Street View progress from updates on various islands ranging from East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia to the Canary Islands in Spain. The Google Maps team has been quite adept at updating various areas of the world whether it be the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, beautiful beaches in Puerto Rico as well as the mountains of the Greek island of Crete.
In addition, South American drivers have ventured to photograph Patagonia from the lakes of Aysén in the Chilean mountains to the coast of Santa Cruz in Argentina.
General Overview
- 🇵🇷 Significantly expanded coverage in eastern Puerto Rico
- 🇨🇱 Much of Chile’s Aysén region is being updated for the first time in a decade.
- 🇦🇷 First appropriate updates to several Argentine cities in the south of the Province of Santa Cruz
- 🇮🇩 New updates to several small islands in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, including Timor, Sumbawa, Alor, and Adonara.
- 🇻🇳 Vietnam joins the bloc of South East Asian countries in receiving continuous updates
- 🇦🇪 Google is once again using its Trekker to cover several residential areas in Dubai in the UAE.
- 🇺🇸 The United States receives more extensive coverage in mountainous areas in California, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nevada.
- 🇨🇦 Several Canadian provinces will receive better coverage for Street View, including the coastal area of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as several areas around lakes in British Columbia.
- 🇦🇺 Street View drivers in Australia travel along various roads that pass through nature reserves in New South Wales, as well as several roads in the middle of the Australian desert in the Northern Territory.
- 🇮🇳 More places in India are receiving proper imagery made with high-quality cameras, including Punjab, and rural coverage is expanding in West Bengal and Bihar.
- 🇪🇸 The remaining Balearic Islands are updated with recent imagery using Gen 4, although Google Spain ultimately publishes coverage made with poor-quality cameras.
Caribbean
What a surprise Google teams have given us in the Caribbean. First, Google released a ton of imagery around eastern Puerto Rico, in addition, the mapping team began updating the National District of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic for the first time.
The new updates have reached more municipalities in western Puerto Rico including Yauco, where the Google Maps team has begun to cover much more of this region of Puerto Rico including 360 views around Lake Luchetti Reserve.
Coverage was also extended for the first time to Lajas, Arecibo, Peñuelas, Guayanilla and Cabo Rojo. Other interesting areas covered include Dos Bocas Lake in Arecibo with imagery that takes back to May 2025.
Elsewhere, the Google Maps team in Puerto Rico photographed the Isla de las Cabras located in San Juan Bay, this area had previously been covered with Gen 3 Trekker as part of Google’s efforts to bring street view to historic sites in Puerto Rico, but now it is possible to see much of the roads covered.
South East Asia
Now you can explore more areas of East Nusa Tenggara, some islands of this province had been stuck with images from 2016. But now, Google Indonesia has greatly expanded its fleet of vehicles for this region, where it is now possible to see new images of Alor Island, which had not received an update for 9 years.
Another area stuck in the old Gen 3 Imagery of 2016 was the island of Lembata, which Google sent a vehicle in June of this year to photograph parts of the largest island of the Solor Archipelago, which is characterized by being home to the Lamaholot community. It is interesting to see this new approach by Google Indonesia to cover many more areas of the country instead of its current routine of updating the larger islands of the country.
Other islands received additional coverage, such as the road to Ropang in South Sumbawa and the Timor Island, where Google’s cameras photographed the roads around the Fulan Fehan Valley. In addition, roads located right on the international border with Timor Leste were also published as part of this update in East Nusa Tenggara.
In addition, Google Indonesia also added Adonara Island to its Street View service, one of the few parts of the province that only has Gen 4 Imagery. The last time the mapping subdivision in Indonesia covered an island in East Nusa Tenggara was in 2024 after the addition of Rote to the service, but apparently this year they want to include more of this Indonesian province, which is quite fascinating as this archipelago contains some incredible views of beaches, volcanoes as well as a lot of traditional architecture.
In fact, the addition of Adonara to the service has been interesting as Indonesian drivers were able to capture images around settlements located near Ile Boleng.
Vietnam joining the updates
After a strange legal situation in Vietnam finally ended in June this year, Google has finally been able to integrate the country with the rest of the frequent updates in South East Asia. Not only is the country on the official Google Maps list, the mapping team has surprised us by their work in integrating many more areas of the country that have not been covered during the Initial Drop.
In fact, Vietnamese users have recorded videos of the Google Cars in more regions in the country including Lào Cai in the mountainous northwestern region of the country, where it has been reported that the vehicles have started to update the area around Sa Pa. This Vietnamese city was first captured in 2017 and subsequently partially upgraded with motorcycles equipped with Gen 3 cameras in 2019. Hopefully the Google Maps team will finally update areas stuck in the 2010s imagery.
It is worth noting that Vietnamese users also spotted the Google cars in other areas of the province such as Bắc Hà and Tằng Loỏng.
New areas that have received coverage since then include the mountainous area of Kim Bôi located in the former province of Hòa Bình. In addition, Nghệ An also featured more updates, including new views around the Cả River basin.
It is interesting to see how the Street View project in Vietnam is progressing more and more by including the use of motorcycles to photograph certain suburbs. In fact, during this month coverage of several alleys in Nha Trang in Khánh Hòa was published. Not only urban areas were recorded with motorcycles in this coastal province but also beaches in Cam Ranh were photographed.
New areas in Borneo
Google cameras also started to cover many more areas in Borneo, the third-largest island in the world, as well as on the Malaysian and Indonesian side. Among the new coverage, we can note that Google photographed the roads leading to the Tirus Madi Forest Reserve, a nature reserve located in Tambunan in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
Explore the Sesayap River at the Malinau Regency or the Nunukan Hills. Also, the area around Tanjung Selor also had new additions, it is interesting to see the Google Maps equipment in North Kalimantan, because the less populated Indonesian province of the island is not usually updated as frequently as the other parts of the island.
South Asia
Within Bangladesh
Bangladesh has received a number of updates with new imagery from streams in Chittagong to small villages in Rajshahi.
The Decode team has driven through interesting areas including the chars around the Meghna River including views around the bridges connecting Pararbond. Also the Matlab Uttar Upazila located on the banks of the Dhanagoda River has been integrated with the rest of the coverage in Bangladesh, where it is now possible to see certain historical sites such as the Anwarpur Central Jama Mosque.
More Indian cities
The Google Maps team in India has made a lot of progress over the last few weeks. Last month, we reported on the progress on the street view project in the country Since then, new cities have been upgraded using Gen 4 cameras including Kanpur.
But the ambitions to bring high quality imagery to more regions of India did not stop there, right now the Google India team is focusing on properly updating the imagery around Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Not only that in the south of the country, drivers have started updating the images around Erode in Tamil Nadu. Much of the city has 2022 images made with poor quality cameras. It is interesting to see how the Google team has spread out in the state after upgrading almost all of Chennai earlier this year.
The Google Maps team has also made progress in integrating new areas of the state into Street View, including the area around Kurumbapatty Zoological Park near Salem. It is now also possible to view the Polali Rajarajeshwari Temple in Gen 4 Imagery. It is one of the most important religious sites in the Karnataka region and is referred to in several ancient texts, such as the Ashoka inscriptions.
On the other side of the country, Google has updated the areas around Raniganj, a town in Paschim Bardhaman known for its Islamic architecture. To complement this, the Google India team has revealed new views of rural areas of the state, including imagery around the Terai plains adjacent to the Sivalik Hills.
Gen 4 Imagery coverage is gradually expanding to new areas in other states, including Punjab. It is interesting to note that the Google India team first used these cameras in the city of Patti. Subsequently, Google India will update part of the Tarn Taran metropolitan area, making it the second Punjabi city to receive proper Gen 4 Imagery.
Maharashtra has also joined the Indian states that Google wants to update, this time updating the imagery around Aurangabad, the fifth most populous city in the state.
Rajasthan has also received additional coverage in several cities where it is now possible to see the Siwanchi Gate in Jodhpur, as well as new residential areas in Ajmer.
Also, other areas of the state of Uttar Pradesh have been updated with HQ Cameras, including the city of Aligarh, which has become the third metropolitan area in this state to receive proper Gen 4 Imagery, and even the famous Aligarh Muslim University obtained new 360 views on adjacent roads. This is quite useful for the local population, as this educational institution has important libraries that document the Islamic culture of Uttar Pradesh. This goes hand in hand with Google India’s attempt to photograph many areas in cities that had not previously been covered in 2022.
South America
Google Chile has shown that it intends to cover new areas of the country including Ruta 14-CH in Coquimbo, this road passes through the Andean zone of this region and serves as an access point to San Juan in Argentina. The last time the mapping service photographed this route was in 2012, more than 13 years ago. At that time, much of the route was unpaved, so the Gen 3 coverage stopped at Aguas Negras. But over time, the Chilean government paved much of the Ruta 14-CH sections starting from 2018. This has given Google Chile the opportunity to cover incredible views from the road.
Driving in Santa Cruz
Google Argentina has taken steps to integrate more areas of Patagonia to the Street View service. The situation of Santa Cruz province is quite particular within the mapping project, much of this region is still stuck in Gen 3 Imagery. After being ignored by Google Argentina for several years, the drivers finally entered the province in December 2024, partially replacing Gen 3 Imagery and adding coverage for towns like Perito Moreno as well as Los Antiguos, a border town with Chile. In the coastal area of the province, the Google Maps team has focused on updating Puerto Deseado, a town that had not been updated since late 2014.
Although it has been a relatively slow process to upgrade Patagonia, that has not stopped both Chilean and Argentine drivers from going much further south on the continent. Throughout 2025, social media users reported sightings of vehicles with Gen 4 cameras in new areas of Santa Cruz.
Cities in Santa Cruz where sightings of Google Maps Vehicles have been reported:
- Pico Truncado (Last Update: November 2015)
- Caleta Olivia (Last Update: November 2015 with very limited Gen 4 Coverage located at the main access roads)
- Cañadon Seco (Last Update: Very limited coverage, with some images from December 2024)
- Rio Gallegos (Last Update: December 2018 in some sections but mostly February 2014)
- Rio Turbio (No Coverage available)
Aysén and beyond
The mapping subdivision in Chile has also been working on incorporating much of the far south into the service, regions such as Aysén that had not been updated for over a decade. Chilean drivers picked up new regional roads such as the X-565 that connects Coyhaique Alto with Nireguao near the border with the province of Chubut in Argentina.
The cameras have revealed a lot of good Chileans for this region with only 91,000 inhabitants. The updates to the existing coverage do Aysén a good favor in showing quite bright colors unlike the gloomy and depressing Gen 3 Imagery that Google Chile took in the 2010s. These include Regional Route X-696, which serves as an access point to the Paloma Lake.
Not only did the Aysen region get new updates after a decade, Google Chile finally got around to updating roads in the southern part of Las Lagos Region including Route W-887 that passes by El Amarillo hot springs near the Pumalin Douglas Tompkins National Park. Other picturesque areas covered included Los Torreones suspension bridge that crosses the Simson River.
Across the Andes
It is interesting to see how the previous Gen 4 coverage that we reported on in Ecuador a few weeks ago has expanded significantly in several provinces across the country.
Coverage in the border town of Tulcán has been expanded. The last update this city received was in 2014, so it is somewhat peculiar that it took until this year for ANETA to finally decide to update a large part of the city. However, it is good that Tulcán is one of the few locations in Ecuador that went from Gen 3 to Gen 4 without having to resort to using poor-quality cameras. so kudos to ANETA, I suppose.
ANETA has also covered areas around San Pablo de Yanayacu, located on the border between the provinces of Cotopaxi and Tungurahua.
Coverage in the Peruvian department of Arequipa was also expanded. We had previously reported that Google Peru was using pickup trucks to photograph parts of the mountains of Cuzco and Apurímac. However, they still use their normal setup in certain parts of the country.
Europe
Arriving to new places in Greece
It is quite interesting how the Greek subdivision has managed to use the new portable cameras to cover a large part of the territory. One of the new phases of the Street View project in Greece included the deployment of vehicles via ferries to cover several small islands in the Aegean Sea from October 2024; including views from Kalimnos, Kythira, Ios, Simi, Kythnos, Skiros, Kasos, Tilos and Nisiros. Subsequently, coverage would be available to the public from April 2025. This was a good sign that the Google Maps team would use this new technology to cover much more ground, especially in a country where much of the imagery is from 2011 to 2014 in certain areas.
The deployment of portable cameras in this year to Greece, has allowed to photograph much more areas of the country including the mountainous areas of Thessaly. Where Google Maps vehicles were able to capture high altitude roads such as the road leading to St Nectarios Monastery in Verdikousa (Βερδικούσα) at 1152.9 meters above sea level.
Not only continental Greece was updated during this period. Google’s subdivision in the country sent vehicles to the island of Crete to photograph many more areas, among them the Lasithi Plateau or the Dikti Mountains near the Avdou. In addition, Corfu was the first Ionian island to receive proper updates for some time, including expansions in the south of the island including more detailed coverage in Lefkimmi. In addition, Google cameras for the first time captured the Dome Radar on Mount Pantokrator.
Roads around the Katafiki-Migali Petra-Skala Gramos Park (Καταφίκη-Μεγάλη Πέτρα-Σκάλα Γράμου) in the mountains that separate Greece with Albania were covered.
Updates in the Balearic Islands and Mainland Spain
From Plaça de les Illes Pitiüses in La Savina to La Mola Lighthouse, this is the first time that Google Spain has updated the island of Formentera with Gen 4 cameras.
Unfortunately, Spain has become the second country in Europe, after Finland, to publish coverage made with unofficial cameras, which has led to a lot of mixed opinions on how the company is managing projects in the region. For a long time, it has been theorized that the incorporation of these cameras was for testing purposes, although Google is generally not very open about its logistics, making it difficult to predict what its next approaches to the European market will be.
In recent weeks, Google Spain has taken on the task of launching new imagery on several islands in the country that had not been updated for years, as well as deploying several trekkers in order to cover the historic centers and several parks of Spaniard cities such as Coruña, Zaragoza, and Valladolid. But this has reached another level, it seems that Google’s strategy in Spain is to launch a lot of new imagery, but that means they may prioritize quantity over quality and set a bad precedent for the future of the service in Europe. Who knows what the next victim of this coverage will be?
The use of unofficial cameras has been reported in several countries, from certain cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to even Nicosia on the island of Cyprus. Let’s hope this is not a future trend for Google.
Into the Slovene Mountains
So Google Adriatic has surprised us with the release of coverage in the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia. The new imagery includes images near Snežnik Plateau as well as Planina in Kočevje near the Croatian-Slovenian border.
In addition, the area around Taborska Wall, located also in the Kočevje Mountains, where several memorials and commemorative plaques can be seen.
Trekker Coverage expanding
Several European cities had upgrades using trekker for certain areas from Bucharest North Railway Station in Romania.
Middle East
The current situation in the region
Google has focused on photographing Gulf countries recently. Due to legislation and privacy issues, this has made it difficult for Google to expand in the region. The first country added was UAE, well to be more specific the emirate of Dubai, and for 3 years Google took the initiative to obtain permissions to photograph most of the remaining emirates with the exception of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, where although Google has a record of driving in the emirate for privacy reasons, coverage has been blocked.
Although the situation in the Gulf has changed a lot since 2010s. Google finally obtained permission from the Qatari government to photograph the country for the World Cup after several failed attempts in 2015 as well as authorities of the Sultanate of Oman gave the American company the opportunity to photograph the country after parts of initiatives that try to connect Oman with the rest of the world through new technologies.
2025 has been an interesting year in terms of what Google has revealed about its street view service, where they announced that Kuwait will be the next country to be targeted by their cameras as well as a future collaboration with the Communications Regulatory Authority in Qatar that will attempt to photograph various tourist sites in the country.
Trekker coverage in Dubai
Although local media in the region have reported on Google’s progress in other countries, the Street View project has received a noticeable pause in the UAE, where the country has not received updates from Google Maps since August 2024. To our surprise, though, it seems that the Google team in Dubai has started testing their trekkers again to photograph various parts of the city.
For the moment, UAE is the only country in the region that has pedestrian coverage in certain parks and squares. Maybe this is a good approach for Google to photograph areas where cars can’t reach, after all they are not the only ones to show interest in photographing the city. In fact, Apple has been collaborating with GeoDubai to test their new portable cameras in the UAE.
In addition, users on social networks also noticed those trekkers taking pictures around Al Qusais. Additionally, Dubai residents were surprised that the Google Maps company did this mapping job considering that July is a very hot month for UAE.
North America
Advances in Mexico Coverage
Google Mexico has revealed the coverage they have done with trekker in some suburbs of the city of Guanajuato, this Mexican city is characterized by its alleys and stairs, which are not possible to capture using a normal car.
On the east coast of Mexico, the Cerro del Borrego Park was photographed for the first time, where you can see the city of Orizaba above.
New roads in the United States
After 17 years, Google finally updated roads around the Cascade Volcanic Arc including the Mount Baker Highway. Updates in the state also featured views around Silver Lake near Mapple Falls.
States such as Utah and Nevada also had expansions around mountain roads including areas in the Schell Range near Ely. Other important areas covered by Google include the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
In addition, the company has taken steps to increase coverage in Pagosa Springs as well as the Southern Ute Indian Reservation (Kapuuta-wa Moghwachi Núuchi-u), which some sections were still trapped in 2008 imagery.
In addition, areas where Google had not driven since 2009 were finally updated including the Alabama Hills, an area located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California that has been filming locations for several classic movies. It is worth mentioning that other areas much deeper into the Sierra Nevada were photographed for the first time in this update including the Whitney Portal. Now, its possible to view the area around Titus Canyon located in Death Valley National Park.
Oregon has also seen coverage expansion, including views around Henry Hagg Lake. In addition, you can now explore new areas in Wyoming. This is the first time Google has photographed the roads leading to the Wagon Box Battle Monument, a stone structure erected in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
New Canadian Imagery
The recent updates for Canada have been quite interesting from views of the icebergs from the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. In addition, the Google Maps team in Canada has also photographed areas where ferry access is possible, such as several areas around Kootenay Lake.
In addition, the Port au Port Peninsula finally got its first update with Gen 4 cameras. The Newfoundland and Labrador area only had Gen 3 imagery from 2018. The Google Maps team also photographed several areas in Alberta, including the Syncrude Giants of Mining to the Gregoire Lake Provincial Park.
In mid-July, users also reported sightings of a Google Maps vehicle driving through a residential area of Prince Rupert. This area in British Columbia had not been previously updated by Google since 2012. A local company attempted to partially update the area in 2023, but it is good that Google Canada is trying to do the work itself without having to rely on third-party imagery for better consistency.
Oceania
Expansion of Australian Street View
Explore the Roper Highway in the Northern Territory, the Paroo-Darling National Park in New South Wales, and Tully Gorge National Park in Queensland. Alternatively, explore the Mount Useful, where you can see a little snow in the new coverage captured by Australian drivers.
