Approximatively one month in the year 2024, the first major Street View update was published. Here is a summary of what you can find inside it.
Rwanda
After many weeks with only very small additions around Kigali, new large additions were made in Rwanda. This time, all the provinces received coverage, notably the Eastern Province which got its first imagery. In Kigali itself the new areas that were partially published in a previous update got some extensions, but many tiles still remain empty.
In the Northern Province, the town of Ruhengeri (Musanze) was added, offering great views of the volcanoes located at the border with Uganda. Parts of the National Road 2 were also covered.
The Western Province saw missing neighborhoods of Gisenyi (Rubavu), the border town next to Goma, DRC, getting their coverage. The National Road 16 was also covered between the National Road 2 and the National Road 17.
In the Southern Province, Muhanga and sections of the National Road 1 were added. This is where the newest imagery can be found, with images from January 2024.
The Eastern Province, where only the Akagera National Park was available, got its first regular coverage. Along the National Road 4, the towns of Kabarondo and Kigarama and their surroundings were added.
Kenya
In Kenya, many roads were added in the southern half of the country. Notable additions are located near Narok or Nakuru, two towns located west of Nairobi, but more updates can also be found in many other counties from the coast to Lake Victoria.
Most new coverage was taken in 2023 however imagery as new as January 2024 can be found around Maua in Meru county. Some 2022 coverage from a previous update was also published in the process.
Senegal
In Senegal the new coverage is mostly a continuation of the previous update, with additional tiles being populated with new data. Many tiles are still missing data, however.
Most of the new coverage consists into dirt tracks in the fields east of Thiès, in various regions. It can be quite impressive how well covered some areas are considering the kind of roads that were driven.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, a completely new island was added in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Rote Island had no coverage before and is now fully covered with data from January 2024. Additional roads were also added on Timor near Timor-Leste and on the eastern part of Flores Island.
A couple of new roads were also added in other parts of the country, with a special mention with Aceh where a few roads got their coverage extended near the nearby province of North Sumatra. Outside of this area, Aceh remains mostly uncovered: only 3 sections of streets around Banda Aceh are available, and the reason is still a mystery today.
Australia
In Western Australia, an appreciable amount of roads were added along with many updates on roads that were still covered with gen 1 imagery.
In the east, many roads were also added in Southern Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
Brazil
Brazil had some additions in the state of Mato Grosso, east of Cuiabá. Additional roads were also covered in the state of Pernambuco, west of Recife.
Malaysia
After two years without any update, Google finally started to publish new coverage in Malaysia. New data from 2021, 2022 and 2023 was released in Selangor near Kuala Lumpur, and in the southern state of Johor next to Singapore. Almost no new roads were added since the new imagery was released on roads that were already covered.
Mexico
The Mexican state of Campeche saw many new roads and towns added during January.
Another spot with many new additions is located around Los Mochis and Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa.
Bangladesh
Earlier in January, Bangladesh saw most of the remaining empty areas of the Rangpur Division being filled with new imagery. This should complete the ambitious mission of covering the whole country, even if a few places still lack of coverage (notably in the southeast near Chattogram). Dhaka itself also got some updates.
The local partner, The Decode Ltd., is now driving bikes with Trekker cameras in the narrow streets of Dhaka. A car was also spotted in Harirampur, Dhaka Division, meaning the company should keep driving with the cars along with the bikes.
Turkey
In Turkey new coverage was added in multiple areas, including areas around Çorum, Kayserim, Bitlis, Van, or Erzican. Some major cities such as Instabul also received updates, with data as new as January 2024.
Chile
In the mountains of the Coquimbo region, a lot of new roads were added. This include remote dirt roads going deep in the Andes.
To finish this post, a word on the other countries that got updated in the previous month:
- The United States got the first January 2024 coverage only 5 days after the beginning of the year, making it the fastest published coverage ever. Spain followed 2 days later.
- The countries with January 2024 coverage are Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Rwanda, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.
- The other countries getting an update are Argentina, Colombia, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa.
- Finally, in the prefecture of Kagoshima, Japan, the Koshikijima Islands (a group of 3 island, Kamikoshiki, Naka-Koshiki and Shimokoshiki, linked together by bridges) received their first gen 4 coverage.
