After an update, Google Maps also shows drivers fuel-efficient routes as an alternative to the fastest routes. When driving through Berlin, for example, consumption can be reduced by more than 30 percent.
Due to climate change and rapidly increasing costs, saving energy is an increasingly important topic. Google understood this too, registering a 338 percent increase in searches for “save gas” or “save fuel” compared to the previous year. Now the company can help motorists not only with answers, but also directly with navigation using Google Maps. Because after an update that will be distributed in the coming weeks, the app (Android/iOS) will offer you not only the fastest but also fuel-saving routes.
When determining the more energy-efficient route, not only the length plays a role, factors such as road gradient or traffic jams are also taken into account. According to a Google spokesman, the fuel-saving routes should not lead through quiet residential areas if possible.
Users see the estimated difference in arrival time as well as the potential savings. In the settings you can prefer the fuel-saving routes or specify that you should always be guided to your destination as quickly as possible. It is also possible to indicate the motor type, since the potential savings can vary depending on the type of drive. You have the choice between petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric drive.
The effect of fuel-efficient route planning can be enormous. As an example, Google gives an approximately one-hour drive across Berlin, where the estimated saving is 35 percent. On another trip through the capital, it’s still 18 percent.
The contribution to the fight against global warming can also be high. Using artificial intelligence and insights from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Google estimates that fuel-efficient routes have the potential to avoid over one million tons of CO? emissions globally each year. Since the function was introduced in the USA and Canada last fall, as many emissions have been saved there alone as if 100,000 cars were taken off the road.
