MSES (Microsoft Earth Sim), a synthetic dynamic (modifiable) Planet Earth? - The Future of Simulators, Games, and many other Applications

I agree that Google’s imagery and data are likely superior, and the idea of using street-level imagery to generate/supplement the photogrammetry is precisely what I was referring to in regards to people streaming their cell phone images with location data and/or point clouds to an AI server that will process/stitch it all together. Areas where there is lots of participation by the users will result in higher resolution/quality/up-to-date imagery. There are so many cameras everywhere now, that if you were to harvest imagery from just a small percentage of them (simming and gaming community), then you would be able to do a pretty good job up updating most areas of interest. And yes, there will always be parts of the planet that are inaccessible for one reason or another, so let’s get that conversation out of the way. We are talking something like 5-15 years for this to mature, in part, just waiting for the technology to trickle down to the level where it is not a prohibiting factor for the majority of interested parties.