A new feature in Google Maps offers similar routes to reach a destination, but which require less fuel consumption. In exchange, you will have to drive a few more minutes. An approach that wants to be eco-responsible, according to Google.
For years, Google has touted its environmental commitment. By reducing the energy consumption of its data centers when possible (artificial intelligence is mobilized to find points of optimization). By using renewable energy sources for power. And by promising to offer products made from recycled materials.
The commitments of the American company are therefore old and ambitious. But they are also the target of criticism.
Greenpeace blamed Google in 2017 for insufficient efforts. Its climate policy has also been deemed exaggerated, with vague terms and the choice of a strategy based on carbon offsetting – investing in “green” projects to balance its own emissions. And basically the nature of his business model is perceived as irreconcilable with the stakes.
Google Maps will show more fuel-efficient routes
It is in this context that Google intends to launch a new initiative in Europe. But this time, it’s about mobilizing the public. The Mountain View company wants to take advantage of Google Maps, its mapping and navigation application. The goal ? Suggest routes to Internet users that are likely to consume less fuel.
Google Maps is a popular service for tracking a route on the road — like Waze. If the American company remains evasive as to the number of people using it on the Old Continent or in the rest of the world, it is certain that this app is one of the most used. Therefore, why not make it a lever for action in favor of the climate?
This idea stands when we know that the car is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Overall, road traffic (including cars, trucks, buses, etc.) was responsible for 75% of these emissions in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency. Resolving global warming will go through resolving the issue of transport.
That’s why Google now wants to use Google Maps to offer routes that lead to lower fuel consumption, compared to others. Who says less consumption says reduced pollution. And also less expense at the pump. Because the price of fuel has risen sharply. A full tank can exceed 100 euros for a large car. And by far.
This service, already active in the United States, Canada and Germany, is now extended to all of Europe, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. It is possible to specify in the application the type of fuel used by the vehicle (diesel, petrol, electric, etc.), in order to offer a more detailed estimate of the gains in terms of pollution.
Concretely, the Internet user will only have to enter his destination and the application will provide a visual with a proposed route as well as alternatives. One of the roads will be indicated as less polluting with the presence of a leaf icon. The user is then free to choose whether he wants to follow it or opt for another circuit.
Google said in a press briefing that these routes will have roughly the same travel time – in other words, to avoid offering absurd routes, which would potentially be ideal from a traffic point of view. consumption, but which would require a longer journey. What would be the maximum acceptable deviation? Google does not say.
However, the gaps should be just a few minutes. A visual showed a difference of three minutes. In a blog post published on September 7, a scenario between Limoges and Bergerac is presented. The journey time is extended by ten minutes, but with the benefit of a 30% saving in fuel consumption.
The Maps option is intended to be as fine as possible – in addition to the fuel, Google says it has taken into account the relief of the road to be as accurate as possible (for example, if you climb a hill), but also the traffic. The company relies on data from the US Department of Energy, the European Environment Agency and its own traffic trend data.
But the exercise still has some limits and Google has recognized this: first, it always needs more data to specify its models and algorithms. Then, there are indications to which it does not (yet?) have access: for example, the type of vehicle, which could provide information on its mass and its aerodynamics. Or even on the practice of eco-driving.
A tool, which will not do everything
You have to take the option for what it is: a tool entering into a reflection on transport. Even if the calculation of emissions remains an estimate, it makes it possible to manipulate orders of magnitude and remind motorists of the climate challenge, if only by displaying an icon. Acting on a fraction of Maps users would already be considerable.
Moreover, Google estimates that 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions would have been avoided in the United States and Canada thanks to the deployment of this feature. These 500,000 tonnes represent 100,000 combustion engine cars that would have been withdrawn from circulation. Proof, if we follow Google, that the tool serves and is not a gadget
Interestingly, the Maps tool remains in a logic of car use: however, the challenge of the climate is perhaps that of the challenge of abandoning the car, at least for routes on which one can pass to another means of transport (walking, bus, train, bicycle, scooter, etc.) without too much difficulty. Besides, Google strives to include and push these alternatives.
The benefit of this shift was seen recently in Germany. By putting the train ticket at 9 euros, the public took it much more to move around the country. Estimates from the association of public transport companies, VDV, which has a stake in the success of the train and bus, indicate that the emission of 1.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide has been avoided.