Today, Google announced that it is expanding eco-friendly routing options on Google Maps to 40 more countries across Europe. Environmentally friendly routes, introduced to users in the US for the first time Last year, suggested showing more fuel-efficient routes instead of fastest routes. User can see eco-friendly route marked with leaf label.
To adjust settings for eco-friendly routes, users can tap their profile picture on Google Maps, go to Settings > Navigation Settings, then scroll down to Route Options. Users can tap on the option “Prioritize fuel economy routes” to enable or disable fuel economy routing.
The company is also rolling out a new feature for car owners who choose their vehicle’s engine type to receive personalized recommendations on fuel-efficient routes best suited to the engine. In the coming weeks, users will be able to go to the settings mentioned above and choose the engine type – petrol or gas, diesel, hybrid or electric vehicle (EV) – to navigate.
Tool selector option for eco-friendly routes on Google Maps Image credits: Google
“This technology was made possible thanks to insights from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and data from the European Environment Agency. By combining this information with Google Maps driving trends, we are able to develop advanced machine learning models that are trained on the most common engine types in a given area,” the company said. said in a blog post.
Google claims that after introducing eco-friendly routes in the US and Canada, it was able to save carbon emissions equivalent to 100,000 cars.
Over the years, Google has tried to encourage people to use more eco-friendly navigation options by introducing new features in Google Maps. In 2018, the company first introduced EV charging station information for the app. In July, the company rolled out features for bike navigation with details like Car traffic and types of roads along the route.
