Status Update
Comments
ma...@google.com <ma...@google.com>
ma...@google.com <ma...@google.com> #2
Thanks for the post.
Upon checking, it appears that this is a duplicate of
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #3
Umm... I'm confused. Why would you think it's related to the ongoing 'broken coverage' bug? You've looked at it too quickly. :\
Let me restate this. First of all, it's a request, not some sort of duplicate of an unrelated issue. It's about adding more early Gen 4 imagery that was captured in the U.S. at times during the course of 2016. So, the question is: should we make the data available to the API? Next time, rethink before closing this idea.
ma...@google.com <ma...@google.com> #4
Thank you for the clarification.
We are currently looking into it and we'll get back to you as soon as we have more information to share or if we need more details from you.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #5
Take a look at the link displayed. There is proof that Gen 4 was introduced in 2016, and there should be evidence that these vehicles have captured imagery even though they have not been processed through the API.
You may also want to take a look at this similarly-designed Gen 4 vehicle:
ma...@google.com <ma...@google.com> #6
Thanks for the reply.
We understand that you want to have more Gen4 imagery added in our data. Upon further checking internally, the Street View data we currently have is the best that we can offer.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #7
Well, then, in any case if I’m correct the additional data might have still been in the pending queue for many years since the imagery was captured. So, I don’t know if it’ll be published later this year, or if it is just going to be preserved long term.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #8
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #9
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #10
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #11
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #12
As new content became available, I've been constantly checking the Bay Area for Gen 4 imagery circa 2016, but honestly, I'm unsure how much longer this is going to take because even though they have been captured it's uncertain how the big G would ever plan to roll out the data.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #13
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #15
Okay, I've heard back from a user on that thread saying these vehicles were part of a beta test that led up to its official use the following year. And since it's believed that the data from these vehicles was uploaded to an internal testing server, it is hard to tell whether or not the big G would want to consider after a while transferring the data over to the public API's datasets, possibly in a future Street View update. But we'll wait and see.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #16
This issue will never be tracked if there are no confirmed user experiences. 2016 imagery cannot be completed without Gen 4 captures from that year.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #17
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #18
To be honest, the removal of these images from early- to mid-2017 potentially destroys the image quality of (especially rural) roads needing high- or higher-resolution imagery. If the reason was due to a threshold change, they should've thought about those poor images. I feel bad for that. :'(
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #19
Great, all the early Gen 4 images in Mountain View have been completely removed. I personally feel uncomfortable about this, so if the images are not restored anytime by May, they'll fall into a curse.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #20
This request needs to be reopened because the March 1 update completely removed the Gen 4 data from 2017, and this is not fair.
da...@gmail.com <da...@gmail.com> #21
With the data completely gone, I honestly feel very uncomfortable looking at Street View. Until Google does something about this, I'll be going into a pause.
Description
This may not be related to issue 35826204 , but it is something that's been on my mind lately.
Through imagery, I've been observing some Street View vehicles from 2016 that have marked the start of Gen 4 content, and I quickly formed a theory of these images' existence. Going forward, I came across a yard of Street View vehicles at one of the Google campuses in Mountain View, CA (seehttps://goo.gl/maps/96pronKitqoRMudq9 ).
This led me to a question: could these vehicles have captured imagery during their initial driving times despite being not publicly available? Well, as units were being ordered, Gen 4 was yet to have been announced in September 2017, and it has been the most current generation of Street View imagery since 2018.
We have already saw a major update to Street View from September 2021 that included pre-announcement Gen 4 imagery from 2017 in some U.S. locations, and that should be convenient for a few roads yet receiving quality updates. However the vital question: what about those from 2016 when the very first units were ordered? Well, since they are not yet available in actuality, I would like to raise the possibility of seeing these images in the API's database when a future update rollout occurs. If such an update were to happen, then a few roads and streets (especially in California) in need of new imagery could receive quality improvements.
Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts.