What the heck?!

[BruceK]

What is going on here? I was looking at Google Maps Street View on my phone and these strange characters appear in the road. At first I thought they were painted on the road surface, sort of like how things are painted on the track at the Nordschleife.  But no, they are virtual only.  And if i move up and down the road in Google Maps Street View these symbols appear again and again each time I move forward or backward.  There's nothing special about the area where this road is that I know about – it's simply a residential area in the Texas Hill Country.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

[BruceK]

Those were obviously screenshots from my phone, but I just looked at that same location using my laptop and the characters are there - but in a slightly different font.  It this some kind of Easter Egg that Google has programmed for some reason?  They kind of look like runes, but I don't they are.

Here's where I am seeing them:  https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8675692,-98.2888617,3a,16.7y,33.36h,72.07t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV5r9aLAcPB64nlY5y3bHEw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[MPlayle]

It is the street name converted to a strange font.  If you forward onto that side street, the font changes back to normal text and the new street name.

[MPlayle]

Zooming in on the street names at the stop sign, it should be "Oblate Drive" in whatever font/language it is displaying.

[MPlayle]

I was able to highlight and copy the script.  I put it into google search as "translate ላይትሀውስ ድራይቭ to english" and it came up with detecting it to be Amharic and translated to "Lighthouse Drive" which is a section of that road further on based on a farther out view on google maps.

Edit: Amharic is out of Ethiopia

[John Gervais]

That is just so wrong - hope the city cleans the graffiti.  MAGA!

[BruceK]

I was able to highlight and copy the script.  I put it into google search as "translate ላይትሀውስ ድራይቭ to english" and it came up with detecting it to be Amharic and translated to "Lighthouse Drive" which is a section of that road further on based on a farther out view on google maps.

Edit: Amharic is out of Ethiopia

Good detective work Michael!   I was trying somehow get the symbols to Google them but I didn't have the skill to capture them.   

So it was street name overlay label that went wrong?  I've never seen that feature on Google Maps before.

And I just leaned about Amharic too!   4.gif

[BruceK]

That is just so wrong - hope the city cleans the graffiti.  MAGA!

LOL!     ;D