The new features include eco-friendly routing, lite navigations for cyclists, and bike and scooter share information.
Sustainable transportation is now a necessity to save environment and reduce greenhouse effects. Vehicles on the road are one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases across the world accounting for around 75% of CO2 emissions. To address this climate change issue, Google Maps announced addition of new features that target lowering the carbon emissions of its users. These feature allow sustainable routing, lite navigation for cyclists, and bike and scooter share information to help people chose eco-friendly ways of commuting.
Google Maps will use its new routing model that will take the user to its destination quicker alongside recommending roads that are built for minimum fuel consumption, saving money on gas. The new sustainable routing uses Google’s AI algorithms to suggest the most fuel-saving route that may be the quickest course to the destination. User can chose between the fastest and more eco-friendly route. According to Google, this sustainable routing can prevent carbon emission in huge amount like more than a million tons every year, which is same as removing 200,000 cars from the road. Furthermore, the lite navigation function allows cyclists to see essential details about the course they’re using without having to keep their phone screen on to enter turn-by-turn navigation. This feature gives important details of the trip such as progress of the trip, real-time ETA (expected time of arrival), even the elevation of the route.
Moreover, with bike and scooter share information feature, users can get informed about nearby scooter and bike stations with exact availability of vehicles at the particular station. Users can also ensure space before reaching the station. The eco-friendly routing feature is currently available in the U.S. on both iOS and Android. Google is expected to make these features available in Europe and other markets in 2022.