Updated satellite images and roads

I have seen a problem with updated satellite images on google maps.
I have spent a lot of time drawing and fixing roads and have seen that when the satellite images update, the roads are not in the right place. This photo is from Iceland and not long ago I fixed every road there and drew the roads that were missing. Now the satellite images have updated… and as you can see, it’s all messed up!!

This is not the only place I have seen this, but please tell me it will sync or something so it will be in the right place, or do I have to start all over again? lol

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@SholaIB , can you help with this question?

All I know is that it is difficult to get the alignment to fit in all areas. And the trouble starts when new satellite images arrive. Maybe user-drawn new roads will not be a top priority when fixing such alignment issues. One solution could be to block adding new roads until after the alignment is completed.

Cheers

Morten

Hello

@MortenCopenhagen Thank you for tagging me on this. It’s an interesting but not new issue. We face this lots of time during our campaign and always on drawing roads

Hello @stefoskars

I feel your frustration of having to re-draw these roads you have drawn all over again. Nevertheless that’s the only solution as it stands now. Please re-draw the roads.

We can’t stop or influence the new satellite images updates. At the same time it disrupts what’s on ground before hand. I discussed this issue with our top man on TRAC @Lukas_1 he is the most experienced on drawing roads on our campaign team. We agreed that the way forward and solution is to start all over again. It’s not going to rectify itself No!!!

We have suggested and advocated for more points on drawing roads, or even a badge or something. Drawing roads is more technical and time consuming. Well it’s not all about points or badges but it’s part of it. Hope this answers your question.

Happy mapping

Cheers

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Hi @stefoskars

This is simply because of the difference between satellite imagery angles with each update and you see such a situation more in the areas with higher elevation.

To be honest, I don’t consider this a problem. But I think Google can provide a way to prevent such a situation, for example by setting an average position of the different imageries, although it needs more image processing and gathering more data.

@MortenCopenhagen @SholaIB

Previously in Map Maker for several years we had the ability to move all selected roads at once, but when such an option is not available, I don’t suggest moving all roads one by one!

This not only takes time but also may cause several issues. As already suggested, one or another kind of simple change per edit could help for a better understanding of the AI and better approval.

If one user changes all roads by one edit, there is more likely to get rejected after a while and this results in wasting time.

On the other hand, if the user tries to edit one and then one, this could result in partial approval of edits and will cause a messed shape of the whole road.

Moreover, this is not possible nor true to try moving all roads each time satellite imagery updates.

So, there are two options:

First, we could continue the new drawings based on previous ones but with an eye to replicate the shape we see in the satellite imagery. This helps to update the map as it fits with the next satellite imagery.

The second option is to wait for the next satellite imagery. If it is not an emergency road drawing, we could wait a few weeks for the next update. Fortunately these days Google updates it more often.

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Hi @stefoskars ,

Sometimes Google places satellite imagery that has incorrect information, which can make it being misplaced. In your case the satellite imagery was probably misplaced and now they updated it with more precise data.

Using the Maps API to display the exact position of each Google Street View frames, I can see the satellite imagery is now correct:

The red dots show where the Google car drove and you can see it perfectly matches the roads on the satellite view. In this case the roads need to be adjusted to match the satellite imagery.

When this happens you can check the surroundings and find a transition between two different satellite data sets and see if roads are shifted between them. If you see something like this then there is a chance one of the data sets is incorrectly placed and drawing / adjusting roads is not recommended as it is likely to be wrong and rejected by Google.

Hopefully this helps you understanding better!

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Hi @L-C

Nice to know about Google Maps API that could show the exact position of the SV. We haven’t access to it so I haven’t much info about its features.