Tags
Coverage years #year
46 clues · 31 countries.
Tags
46 clues · 31 countries.
Showing 46 clues across 31 countries.
Generation 4 coverage in Alaska is concentrated around the city of Anchorage.
Sunrise coverage with degraded image quality is found on the RN40 just south of the Mendoza border with Neuquén.
NOTE: The quality of the coverage improves closer to the border.
Sunrise coverage with bad image quality and multiple blurs is found on a short part of the RN251 and RN22, west of Río Colorado.
Roads that start with the letter ‘C’ are only found in Victoria and Tasmania. In addition, South Australia has some C roads near the border with Victoria.
NOTE: Since these are smaller and less major roads, Generation 1 or 2 is common.
For legal reasons, Google has added small labels noting their copyright on all Street View coverage. These labels contain a year, typically the year when the coverage was released, which can be used to regionguess Bangladesh. Generation 4 coverage with 2022 written on the copyright labels can be found in Mymensingh, Dhaka and less commonly Chittagong.
NOTE: Beware that the copyright labels will rarely get updated to a later year, without any other changes to the coverage.
Similarly, Generation 4 coverage with 2023 written on the copyright labels can be found in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet and less commonly Chittagong.
NOTE: 2024 and 2025 now make up around half of all copyright dates. These can be found all over the country.
The majority of Generation 3 coverage in Bulgaria was taken during March and April, resulting in very distinct dead-looking “winter” coverage.
NOTE: Hungary and Czechia also have a lot of similar dead-looking Generation 3 coverage. Furthermore, while not common, Bulgaria has some summer Generation 3.
Yukon has a very northern, boreal landscape that is mostly hilly, sometimes with large mountains in the distance. Coniferous trees line the roads and the further north you go, the thinner and shorter the trees get. Older Generation 2 coverage is common in this region.
Another quirk of Generation 3 coverage is that the majority of it was made in autumn. This means that the vegetation in this coverage will often have distinct yellowish or orange fall colours.
Take note that this seasonal meta is not found in Generation 4 coverage.
Stickers with the letters HR can be found on Croatian cars. HR stands for Hrvatska, the Croatian name for Croatia.
NOTE: These were mainly used before EU plates were introduced, meaning they will be less common in Generation 4.
Much of Czech Generation 3 coverage was taken during winter, resulting in very grey, and occasionally snowy, coverage.
NOTE: This is not common in Slovakia.
A small portion of the coverage in Santo Domingo was taken late in the evening. Similar imagery does not exist in Santiago de los Caballeros.
Generation 4 coverage is found in most of Ecuador, with notable gaps in the northwest and southeast.
Kihnu is a small island off the coast that has recognizable coverage:
All coverage is Generation 4, taken during late autumn (recognizable by the fallen brown leaves on the ground).
Noticeably, it has a very moody, dark cloud cover, taken close to sunset.
If you see a combination of these two things, Kihnu is a good place to guess.
NOTE: Near Tartu you can also get a fair amount of autumn coverage, sometimes with a fair amount of cloud cover.
Snow poles which have 2 long reflectors can be found on bigger roads in Lapland.
NOTE: They can only be found in coverage from 2023 onward.
All car coverage in Germany was taken with a Generation 4 camera.
NOTE: There are some Generation 2 and 3 trekkers, and spill coverage with older dates.
Hungary uses long white standard European licence plates. Taxi licence plates are yellow.
In July of 2022, Hungary switched to this new character format, which contains the coat of arms.
NOTE: Newer electric vehicles have green plates.
The majority of Generation 3 coverage in Hungary was taken during winter, resulting in very grey, dead looking coverage.
NOTE: This is also common in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
Indonesia uses white or yellow centre lines. Outer lines will always be white. The centre lines will be solid or dashed.
In Generation 3 coverage, yellow centre lines are more rare, as Indonesia only recently started using this colour for its road lines.
NOTE: Malaysian road lines are always all white.
Generation 3 antenna coverage is most commonly found on Java, but can very rarely be seen on Bali in and around Denpasar. It is most commonly seen in East Java, as most of the antenna coverage in the west has been overwritten by Generation 4.
One noteworthy area in the east is the Wicklow Mountains, just south of Dublin. They can look deceptively similar to the western coastal mountains. It can be very hard, if not downright impossible to distinguish these two areas.
Two things to look out for:
You will never see the coast from the Wicklow mountains.
Like Donegal, its small roads are mostly covered with Generation 4 instead of the Generation 2 that is more typically associated with small roads in the west.
Coverage in Macau is limited to Generation 2.
Generation 2 can be recognized by the lower camera quality and circular blur above and below the camera. Colours will also seem slightly off.
The coverage in Macau specifically is some of the oldest Generation 2 available, meaning that the colours look even more washed out and overexposed than usual. This can be a great way to identify the Macau coverage in the absence of other clues.
Monaco’s licence plates are short and lack the blue strip.
You will still see a lot of normal French plates around, however. These French vehicles often still have the old yellow back plates, due to how old the Generation 2 coverage is.
Erdenet is the second largest city in Mongolia. As such, it has many multistory buildings that can be seen from across town, a large stadium, and a ferris wheel in the south of the city. It is surrounded by large barren hills to the south and to the north, and was covered on a cloudy day in the winter, meaning all vegetation is dead.
NOTE: Erdenet can look very similar to Darkhan and Ulaanbaatar, but the lack of snow distinguishes it from Darkhan, while the cloudy skies and lack of rubber inlays on the roof racks can be used to distinguish it from Ulaanbaatar.
Knowing where the Google car is blurred, will help narrow down your options significantly. Below are some useful use cases:
In the north, the blurred car is only northwest of Ondangwa.
The blurred car on an unpaved road likely places you on one of many sideroads of the B1 or other major roads, or in a town.
The paved road between Nordoewer and Aussenkehr has the car unblurred.
Other notable paved roads not north of Windhoek include the C20, C22 (south of Gobabis), C23.
NOTE: The blurred car strongly correlates with a 2024 copyright. Use with caution.
In 2011, Christchurch was hit by an earthquake. As a result, roads on coverage from 2012 often appear in quite bad shape. Water damage caused many driveways to be cut off from streets due to large puddles of water, dirt or mud.
Due to this reason, many residential houses in the city had to be removed, leading to several districts on newer coverage appearing like normal suburbs, but with almost no houses. This is noticeable when looking at where former driveways used to be.
The 1N near the Piura and Lambayeque border has a distinct looking landscape. It features a semidesert landscape and has overcast coverage in Generation 3. The new Generation 4 is drier but still looks somewhat similar.
Ruta 30C in eastern Peru uses a white Street View car in Generation 3 between the cities of Planchon and Iñapari. It features dense forest, few villages, and resembles interior areas of Brazil. Some of this area has been overwritten with Generation 4. Most of this segment runs north to south.
Province names are very common to find on signs and can thus be very useful. However, they do not appear on the map, meaning they’re necessary to memorise in order to use them.
It is worth mentioning that Davao de Oro changed its name from Compostela Valley in 2019.
Portuguese plates are long and white, with a blue strip on the left. Most plates have a yellow strip on the right, which is unique to Portugal.
The yellow strip was discontinued in 2020, so in Generation 4 coverage you may sometimes see plates with just the blue strip.
Since some coverage was taken before the 2022 World Cup took place, many banners can be seen mentioning the event.
A large, red brake light is common in Kaliningrad, however it can also be found in some older coverage in western Russia.
Autumn Generation 3 coverage is common in Kaliningrad, Bryansk, Tula, and Belgorod in western Russia, but Kaliningrad only has autumn coverage.
Generation 4 coverage is quite extensive and is found in most federal subjects in the country. Notably, areas like the Altai mountains and most of the Far East lack Generation 4 completely. Knowing where Generation 4 can be found isn’t the most helpful at the beginner level; other clues like season and car are more important. The dark red signifies areas where all of the coverage is Generation 4.
Autumn Generation 4 is quite rare and only found around Kazan and a few roads in Murmansk, as well as some of Ulan-Ude.
Generation 4 white car is found in the May coverage near Lipetsk, in Moscow city, and most notably across all the coverage north of Berkatit in the Sakha Republic and Magadan.
On the main road of Murmansk in generation 4, as well as some roads in Karelia covered in 2018, the vast majority of signposts will have two yellow bands wrapped around them.
The Kola-Velingara road between Saré Amirou and Badion is a dirt road that can be recognized by the late afternoon to evening coverage. The coverage gets later toward the west.
While Czechia has a lot of Generation 3 winter coverage, Slovakia has a lot of Generation 3 spring coverage.
Dirt roads which have a deep grey colour and are aligned with low, green grassy vegetation on either side are commonly found in the northern half of Jämtland. This is mostly found in Generation 4 summer and Generation 3 fall coverage.
The highest altitude public road in Sweden, which is a dirt road going straight over a treeless mountain plateau, was covered in Generation 4 on a cloudy day during summer.
NOTE: The highest point on the road features a parking spot and is right on top of the “Falkvålen” label.
Almost all Ukrainian coverage was made in the summer, meaning the foliage is green and the people around are dressed for sunny weather.
Five major cities have autumn coverage, with distinct fall colours and colder weather. See the region guessing section for more information.
Five major cities were covered in 2011, years before the rest of the country was covered: Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk.
This coverage was made during autumn, meaning that the trees have distinct fall colours and people are dressed for colder weather.
In Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv, almost all of this coverage has been overwritten by the newer summer coverage. However, in all of Donetsk, and most of Odesa, it is still intact. In Donetsk specifically, there is no newer coverage at all.
This older 2011 coverage was made with a black or white Google car, instead of the standard red one. Both cars have a long antenna.
The black car was used in Donetsk. Note that Donetsk has no newer coverage whatsoever, so never guess in that city if you see a red car.
The white car was used in Lviv, Kyiv and Kharkiv. As the coverage in these cities is mostly overwritten, the white car is very rare.
The older 2011 coverage in Odesa was made using a silver car with a short antenna, rather than a black or white car with a long antenna. The car may sometimes be fully blurred.
Generation 2 coverage is rare in the US. If you have a Generation 2 location in a North American setting, you are more likely to be in Canada.
The exception to this is Alaska, and to a lesser extent Hawaii, which have a fair amount of Generation 2. You can also rarely see generation 2 in rural areas of the deep south.
Generation 3 coverage is also significantly less common than in Canada.