Google Maps Launches “Green Routes” Feature 

Last year, Google launched a Maps feature for Android and iOS that shows you the most sustainable route.  It’s been available in the US and Canada for nearly 18 months now, with Germany joining the party in August.

The mode is now rolling out to “nearly 40” European countries, including France, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK, but Google hasn’t provided a full list of regions.

In the settings of the mapping application, it is now possible to specify the type of car the user is driving: diesel or gasoline ICE, hybrid car or electric car – based on this information, the system optimizes resource consumption. The service uses data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy, the European Environment Agency and calculations made by Google Maps machine learning algorithms based on the popularity of engine types by region as input data.

Drivers of cars with diesel engines will be directed by the navigator to high-speed highways, where such cars will be most efficient, and the owner of an electric car or hybrid will drive along city streets with heavy traffic, where the brake energy recovery system will deploy its capabilities, Google gives an example.