Engine-specific routing might take advantage of your car’s strengths to pick the most energy-efficient way there
Last year, Google announced that Maps would offer eco-friendly routes that might use less fuel and spit out a little less CO2 if they match what would otherwise be the fastest way there. According to a new teardown of the Google Maps app, that might be further optimized to take into account what sort of car you drive — different kinds are more efficient in different ways, and your route can be tweaked to take advantage of your car’s strengths.
The details come from a teardown by 9to5Google, indicating that Maps will soon allow you to select a handful of different car types to adjust how it calculates the most energy-efficient route, with the following broad categories of options spotted:
- Gas
- Diesel
- Electric
- Hybrid
You may not be aware of it, but different types of cars achieve their peak efficiency in different ways. As a good example, Hybrids actually get better EPA-rated fuel economy in “city” than “highway,” while most typical internal combustion engine-driven gas-powered are more efficient on the highway than in the city. That means a route with a little more stop-and-go traffic might actually be more ideal for a hybrid car than a normal gas car. And EVs are at their most efficient at lower speeds than you might expect, according to The Wall Street Journal, meaning a more direct route on slower back roads might be more energy efficient than the freeway.
This isn’t a distinction many of us are aware of, but with things like rising fuel costs, it doesn’t just affect CO2 emissions; there are monetary savings to be had by better optimizing routing as well.
According to the teardown, Google will let you choose which type of car you are currently driving, and Maps will adjust how it calculates routing to “save you the most fuel or energy.” You’ll be able to change this option later if you get a new car, according to the teardown, and you also don’t have to supply that information at all if you’d rather not.
As usual, with a feature spotted in development, this is subject to change as Google works on it, and it may not even launch at all. But if it does pan out, it won’t just be a bit of greenwashing on Google Maps. You might be able to stretch out the time between fill-ups a little further with no added work on your part.
