After the US and Canada, Google is now bringing its new Maps option to Europe. Germany is the beginning.
Google now brings the option of the most efficient routing on Google Maps to Germany. On Wednesday, the provider wants to start activating the function in this country. In the coming weeks it will be made available to all users step by step. The introduction in Europe is initially limited to Germany. Other countries are to follow later this year.
As early as 2021, Google announced at its I/O developer conference that Maps should have another preference for its route planning: in addition to the shortest and fastest route, there should also be the option of choosing the route with the lowest fuel consumption. Last fall, the fuel-efficient routes first landed on the maps for the US and Canada.
Type of drive factored in
As soon as users switch on the function in Google Maps, the map app also presents the route with the lowest fuel consumption in addition to the fastest route and its alternatives – if desired, this can always be displayed as the preferred route.
In the route overview, you can recognize the fuel-saving routes by an icon in the form of a leaf and an indication of how much less the route is likely to consume compared to the fastest route. In order for this to work, you enter the drive type of your own car in the app.
According to Google, it uses static and dynamic factors to calculate the most economical way. For example, routes with currently high traffic density are avoided. The static factors include the topography, the permitted maximum speeds and structural features such as traffic lights or road bumps to calm traffic.
The goal seems to be that the route is as flat as possible and that the river is as constant as possible. Google itself admits that it can often happen that the fastest route is also the most economical route.
