Google teams in Ecuador and Chile have released quite a bit of new imagery in their respective territories, effectively updating areas that were originally covered more than a decade ago with Gen 3 cameras. In the case of Chile, the Aysen Region in the far south of the country received its first Gen 4 images while in Ecuador, the provinces of Carchi and Santa Elena received updates with Gen 4 Pickups for the first time.
In the case of Brazil, Google published for the first time the coverage made with pickups equipped with portable cameras, being the first country in South America to receive this type of coverage. Meanwhile, the Uruguayan team has traveled to more departments and has noticed a change in the equipment they are using in the country.
Ecuador
In mid-June 2025, we noticed that ANETA, the company in charge of providing Google Street View services in Ecuador, significantly expanded coverage to include the first update of Machachi, the fourth-largest city in the province of Pichincha, which only had outdated images from December 2014. Part of the new imagery in Pichincha dates from January 2025, then ANETA’s mapping team traveled to Tulcan, a city next to the border with Colombia, where they photographed some suburbs.
It is worth mentioning that between February and April of the same year, ANETA drivers began to travel through the mountainous area of the Cotopaxi Province taking panoramic views of Saquisilí, Chinchil de Villamarin and Alaquez.
The province of Guayas also saw much more extensive upgrades with Gen 4 cameras. The ANETA team originally focused on testing Gen 4 Pickups in the Guayaquil metropolitan area in late 2024, but has focused on upgrading several areas with outdated imagery. Later in April, the pickups began to photograph the coastal area of Guayas including the metropolitan area of General Villamil, which had not received new images for a decade, in addition to the Data de Posorja and Puerto del Morro.
As of May 2025, ANETA started to partially upgrade the roads in the province of Santa Elena including improving the imagery around the Port of Salinas, which had previously been upgraded with poor quality cameras in August 2023. The city of Santa Elena also received its first update after a decade, the images were taken in May 2025.
Chile
The Google Chile team also covered several new regional routes such as the X-608 that passes around Laguna Cea, the X-587 which crosses Las Bandurrias Bridge. Aysén has also received notable updates in areas that have not been updated for more than a decade, such as the Chacabuco Valley.
In mid-March 2025, Google Chile finally updated the images around the streets of Villa O’higgins, Cochrane and Coyhaique, which had not received proper updates since 2014.
In addition, the mapping team also photographed the coastal areas of Los Lagos Region including the U-300 Route that connects Pucatrihue, which has several scenic points and viewpoints. Other important roads were covered such as Route 231 that connects Futaleufu with the rest of the region as well as being an access point to the border with Argentina, this specific road has changed a lot since the last time Google Chile toured the area in 2014, where it is now possible to see that many sections have been properly paved as well as now you can better contemplate several nature reserves around this Chilean commune such as the Lonconao Lake.
Brazil
Brazil was the first country in South America to receive coverage using the new wearable cameras developed by Google. The first state where Google launched the coverage is Minas Gerais where the sections Eng. Aymoré Dutra Filho Highway (MG-050) near the Lambari River.
Subsequently, these vehicles were used to provide coverage in other states, including on the BA-148 road, where it is possible to see the city of Irecê from above. In the south of the country it has also been reported that Google Brazil has started using these vehicles to cover certain areas in Santa Catarina including the SC-435 Road, where drivers photographed part of the Rio Salto Viewpoint located in the Serra do Tabuleiro State Park.
In the state of Paraná, the Google Maps team tested the new cameras around PR-459 Road near the Ney Braga Hydroelectric Plant. Additionally, these cameras were also tested in the city of Uruaçu in Goiás.
We have also received reports from users that this mapping equipment has been used to photograph parts of the northern part of the country, such as the Rio Grande do Norte coastal towns like Areia Branca and Porto do Mangue, which has not received any new updates since 2012. This area of Rio Grande do Sul is characterized by its beaches as well as sand dunes, so it is understandable that Google Brazil has chosen to use pickup trucks that are able to photograph roads in much more irregular and sandy terrain as opposed to their typical cars that are regularly used in the rest of Brazil.
Additionally, the southern coastal area of Alagoas was also partially recorded with these pickup vehicles, where it was seen that the pickups were a bit dirty from traveling several off-road roads in the state. The area around Coruripe is characterized by a fairly sandy terrain, so it is understandable that Google Brazil resorted to the use of these vehicles for this region.
Uruguay
In early June 2025, several users in community groups in Uruguay reported sightings of Google Maps equipment in the port of Piriápolis, a tourist area in the Department of Maldonado. Earlier this year, we had noted that the Google Maps team had used Gen 4 Pickups to photograph Montevideo and part of Canelones, but with this new sighting we have noticed that the drivers opted to use a portable camera instead of a trekker, with Uruguay being the second country to receive imagery using these cameras after Brazil.
It should be noted that the Street View project in Uruguay is managed by the Brazilian company “Pavesys Engenharia” based in Porto Alegre, where it has transported several of its pickup vehicles to Uruguay to photograph the country’s streets. This is not surprising knowing that when the street view project was first started in the country, Google transported vehicles from Argentina to Uruguay.
We also received several testimonials from people in Uruguay who had seen this car in other parts of the country, where many people confirmed seeing a Google Maps vehicle photographing most of the neighbourhoods in the city of Pando, additionally we received some reports that Google Maps vehicles had arrived in Rocha. This gives us hope that the project will be extended to more regions of eastern Uruguay, as originally Google had only specified that Montevideo would be covered by early 2025.
Update (July 1, 2025): Google’s last update rollout included peruvian coverage taken using the new portable camera, and has launched more pickup coverage in Brazil. We recommend checking our Discord server and external tools such as SV-Map to stay up to date on future updates as we begin cataloging recent developments.
