Drawing the world's missing roads, one contributor at a time

Google on Tuesday, 19 September, said it will open access to more contributors to participate in its Road Mapper feature to add missing roads to Google Maps globally.

Since the launch of Road Mapper in 2021, contributors have mapped over 1.5 million kms of roads and enabled more than 200 million people to navigate with Google Maps. 

“Their contributions have made a real difference in people's lives worldwide. We're excited to announce that we're opening access to more contributors so that we can continue to improve our maps,” the tech giant said in a statement. 

Road Mapper is an invite-only platform where people participate in challenges, drawing roads missing from Google Maps. They draw road geometry using satellite images.

“There are still many challenges to complete, but we're confident that with your help, we can make Google Maps the best it can be,” the company added.

In June 2013, Google acquired Waze in a $966 million deal. Its social features, such as its crowdsourced location platform, were valuable integrations between Waze and Google Maps, Google's own mapping service.

In June this year, Google Maps rolled out Immersive View in four new cities -- Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence and Venice -- and also expanded the feature to over 500 iconic landmarks around the world, from Prague Castle to the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Android and iOS.