Google Maps expands eco-friendly navigation feature to 40 additional countries

Google announced it is expanding its options for eco-friendly routing on Google Maps to 40 additional European countries.

Eco-friendly routes, first introduced to U.S-based users last year, offer to show more fuel-efficient routes instead of the fastest ones. Users can see the eco-friendly route marked with a leaf label.

To adjust settings for eco-friendly routes, users can tap on their profile picture on Google Maps, head to Settings > Navigation Settings, and then scroll down to Route Options. Users can select the “Prefer fuel-efficient routes” option to turn on or off fuel-efficient routing.

Google is also launching a new feature for car owners to choose their vehicle’s engine type to get personalized suggestions for fuel-efficient routes best suited for the engine type.

In a blog post about the expansion, Google said this technology was made possible due to data from the European Environment Agency and the United States Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). By pairing this information with Google Maps driving trends, the company could develop advanced machine learning models trained on the most popular engine types in a region.

Google claims that introducing eco-friendly routes in Canada and the USA has been able to save carbon emissions equivalent to 100,000 cars.