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ca...@google.com
Thank you for the post and apologies for the delay.
For further checking, kindly provide the coordinates/latlng and the map link for the reported concern.
da...@gmail.com
That's what I did in that issue, but not links. I'll do this once again, this time with links to the locations of concern:
- Los Angeles: 34.4277232,-118.5857775 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ffYtFgm93XHFCKwr7 - Dallas-Fort Worth: 32.7491504,-97.29456 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q6LdyKDKxPfNwGUT7 - Houston: 29.7105342,-95.3082092 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ybrdcwRfxvgu3GSA - Orlando: 28.4997113,-81.4280755 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/H94wP9rL1q4DDzrK9 - Bay Area: 37.4173519,-122.0876903 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/epqGxSLSUC6jdjcz6 - Miami: 25.8356795,-80.2061919 |
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qwtiifHHhjPD3vve9
Screenshots of the locations associated with the imagery are also provided.
If you go to those coordinates, enter Street View and click on the 'See more dates' link on the top-right corner, in some instances there is in fact imagery from 2017, except it's entirely in Gen 3 quality and no Gen 4-equivelant versions currently exist. Even past the removal, I was able to retrieve the imagery through API functionality, but overtime it was also removed there. Note, however, that these are just examples and many other US locations also had Gen 4 imagery captured within the date range.
ca...@google.com
Thank you for the information.
We have logged this issue internally. Please note that we cannot give you any timelines, but you can star the issue to get notifications.
da...@gmail.com
(Replying to
da...@gmail.com
I would like to provide additional information to ensure the coverage is complete.
When the update was released, roads that were not covered before (usually parking lots) received Gen 4 imagery from the date range. In this example, a parking lot in Mountain View, CA (near the Google offices) was covered using a Japanese-model Gen 4 vehicle (not usual to see that here) in June 2017 and had blue lines. With the removal occurring in March 2022, its imagery is no longer accessible and the blue lines are now in half (which actually round up to the nearest roadway, the freeway parallel to it).
Description
On September 10, 2021, Google released a major Street View update that brought historical imagery from various years, including pre-announcement Gen 4 imagery from March-September 2017 in the United States. (The imagery could be accessed through the 'See more dates' function.) This was combined with a new update system that would release new imagery every week. The imagery remained for a while until an unexpected removal occurred in March 2022.
I am honestly not happy with the removal because to some extent, the historical Gen 4 imagery was supposed to update a few roads that remained with lower-quality imagery (for example, a highway in the Angeles Forest which was updated from Gen 3 imagery from 2009 to Gen 4 imagery from May 2017); and to provide researchers with additional imagery that wasn't available before.
I did provide the coordinates of where the imagery existed in one reply, but oddly enough, there was no further update (other than the repetitive posts I kept writing). Some believe that the images were merely 'tests' when in fact they're not because the vehicles that drove throughout the US were too far from the testing location (specifically the Bay Area).
Currently, only a few pre-announcement imagery exists in portions of the western US (and even an area of Georgia), and most of the existing imagery captured within the date range is in Gen 3 resolution, which is not very perfect due to stitching errors and inconsistent picture quality on modern, higher-resolution displays.
The only way for me to access the Gen 4 data again is to redo the update, but because of how buggy it was at the time of its release, I only want to request that a part of it be restored. Thank you.