Google has brought us quite a few surprises for Diwali this year. From the start of the Gen 4 update project in Gujarat and Haryana to the release of high-quality coverage around New Delhi for the first time, it sets a good precedent that the Indian driver team is willing to take on the arduous task of retracing one of the most populous countries in the world for the integration of high-quality Street View.
People in different parts of India have reported sightings of the new vehicles equipped with Google Maps’ new portable camera, including users in Indore, Patna, and Karimnagar.
Delhi
It was about time that Google India took on the task of updating after months of testing these cameras in Chennai and Hyderabad. The vehicles originally entered through Haryana to update certain areas of the capital. Although the filming process will take quite some time, New Delhi is one of the largest urban agglomerations in Asia, and it will not be an easy job to photograph part of the city.
Haryana
As previously mentioned, the Google India team entered through Haryana to photograph part of New Delhi. At the moment, much of the coverage is concentrated on a few national highways.
However, according to user reports, equipment was spotted in Gurugram, located right on the border between Haryana and Delhi. So it is possible that Google Maps’ new focus is now to cover the Delhi metropolitan area as well as adjacent cities again.
In the original coverage release in India, the company used imagery in Gurugram and Faridabad to promote the service in the state, so it is exciting to see them returning to their initial routes.
Gujarat
Rajkot has become the first Gujarati city to receive Gen 4 Imagery. Funnily enough, three years ago, this same city was the first on the Kathiawar Peninsula to receive coverage from third-party cameras after Google integrated Surat, Ahmedabad, and Vadodara. This happened at the end of 2022, so it’s interesting to see how Google India is changing its driving schedule a bit by using these Gen 4 cameras.
Subsequently, Google India began rolling out small sections of updated coverage to other cities in Gujarat, including some commercial areas in Vadodara. It is interesting to note that the Google Maps team prioritized Rajkot first, where the filming process began in September, while places like Vadodara were photographed a month later.
Vadodara was one of the first cities where Google promoted the integration of Street View in 2022 after the original release, but since then the company has shown no interest in covering Gujarati until now.
Punjab
Punjab has been an interesting case in our past reports. We had previously mentioned how Google Maps vehicles had entered certain residential areas, but for several weeks, Indian drivers have been responsible for photographing the historic centers of Ludhiana and Amritsar, where it is now possible to see Gurudwara Dukhniwaran Sahib and Gobindgarh Fort in HD.
Not only that, but surrounding areas and small towns were finally updated, including roads near the Indo-Pakistani border. The new updates have been reached to the cities of Ahmedgarh and Jagraon.
Rajasthan
It is impressive how Google’s vehicles have begun to cover much of Rajasthan. Among the major updates reported is Udaipur, one of the first cities that Google India covered in mid-2022.
Bhilwara has also benefited from proper updates made with Gen 4 cameras. The last update this area of Rajasthan received was in early 2023, but throughout August and September of this year, the Google India team effectively replaced the coverage made with third-party cameras in some suburbs. Bhilwara is home to several important fortifications, and we hope that next time, Gen 4 coverage will be extended to many rural areas and archaeological sites.
Madhya Pradesh
The first city to receive coverage in Madhya Pradesh was Bhopal at the end of 2022, so it is no surprise that the Google India team has once again prioritized the city, especially covering the historic center, which is home to Islamic architecture important to the Deobandi Movement.
It is a nice contrast to the previous coverage, where it is now possible to see historical sites such as the Golghar Museum, dedicated to showcasing the history of Bhopal State, in high resolution.
Tamil Nadu
The project to update Tamil roads has been quite successful so far this year. Google India has almost completely covered a large part of the Chennai metropolitan area and has subsequently begun to cover new cities as well as certain rural areas.
It is now possible to see HD images of new tourist and historical sites in the state, including Dindigul Rock Fort.
Puducherry
Also known as India’s Little Paris, it was about time that Google focused on updating some of the imagery in this part of the Union after its advances in much of Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, this is also the first time that coverage in Puducherry has been updated, throughout March 2023.
The Google Maps team photographed this Union Territory for the first time, but now it is different, with Gen 4 images helping to highlight the uniqueness of this port in Southern India, where previously some of the imagery was overexposed, and some signs were difficult to read. These signs are quite interesting, as they are based on those used in European cities and have transcriptions in both Tamil and French.
Maharashtra
Between July and August of this year, Indian drivers attempted to update the imagery of cities in this state. Mumbai is still waiting, but for now, some areas of Nashik have been updated.
One of the main markets for Google India is Maharashtra, and the company has shown considerable interest in updating part of its database for the state. In 2024, the mapping subdivision in India decided to change several labels on Google Maps following the Marathi parliament’s decision to change some names, such as Ahmednagar to Ahilyanagar. Interestingly, a year later, the company deployed part of its fleet of vehicles to update much of the city, including new shots of access roads to Ahmednagar Fort.
Jharkhand
One of the notable coverage in the state is that vehicles photographed the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary near Jamshedpur for the first time.
Andhra Pradesh
For months, local media had reported that Google Maps vehicles had entered the Nellore metropolitan area to update it. The end result was quite good, with most of the city’s streets now having Gen 4 coverage.
On the other hand, Google India’s new vehicles have arrived in new cities in the state, such as Eluru and Kadapa, which entered the city in September of this year.
Uttar Pradesh
The update process has been a bit messy with regard to updating certain streets in UP, specifically referring to the incident that occurred in late August where residents of a small village near Kanpur attacked Google Maps vehicles after a misunderstanding, thinking that the cars were being used to commit criminal activity.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that similar incidents have occurred in this region of South Asia. A year ago, groups of Nepalese set fire to Google Street View vehicles after mistaking them for vehicles, causing the area around Bharatpur not to be published with the original release of coverage in the country.
Even so, Google India has been exercising some caution when photographing certain areas of Uttar Pradesh in the past. Throughout September, the Google Maps team sent drivers to photograph several residential areas of Gorakphur, specifically in the north of the city, although the historic center and areas around several monuments are still not available.
Despite these incidents, the Google Maps team did not stop there and continued to update more cities in the state. Users had reported sightings of several vehicles in Varanasi, Lucknow, and Agra. The latter city is an interesting case for Street View’s progress in India.
To begin with, Agra is home to several national monuments in India. Google took on the task of photographing them with a trekker in 2013 in collaboration with ASI. So much so that the fact that Google would deploy 360 cameras caused international intrigue, and several Indian media outlets interviewed the photographers who took pictures of the Taj Mahal. This local collaboration also included images of Agra Fort and Akbar’s Tomb.
Fast-forward to 2022, Google India intended to introduce Agra to Street View as one of the first 50 Indian cities to receive this service. Although the result was quite mixed, as the original imagery of Agra was of very poor quality with significant overexposure, which Google India struggled to address using third-party cameras. This is one of the reasons why the navigation team has tried to use official cameras to avoid this type of error when publishing imagery in South Asian cities.
In their defense, they were one of the first companies to use these cameras on a large scale, so it was understandable that the first attempts in India did not yield very favorable results.
Although Agra’s case is unique compared to other cities in Uttar Pradesh, the Google India team has completely removed existing coverage in several suburbs of the city, including Sikandra, known for its traditional architecture and Mughal mausoleums.
Much of the imagery had significant errors, such as excessive overexposure to light, and it is interesting to see that they have taken this approach. In any case, Agra has a second chance to be perfectly recorded using these cameras instead of relying on old imagery taken with cameras that are not even produced by Google.
Reaching another level
This is a small fraction of what has been reported from weeks of work for Google India. For a more comprehensive overview, see the VS Update tool, which provides an interactive map with the latest updates not only in India but also around the world.
