Google Maps will now save you fuel and make travel more sustainable
Google Maps will now save you fuel and make travel more sustainable A string of sustainability minded changes to Google's Search and Maps products aim to help reduce your carbon footprint Robert Leedham As much as the world would be a better place if we all subsisted solely off lentils and lived according to Greta Thunberg's every word, the climate crisis demands some innovative thinking to make everyone part of the solution, including those who aren't as tuned into the imperative to live smarter and more sustainability. To spur on this mindset, Google has announced a huge slate of ecofriendly amendments to its many products, with the aim of reducing emissions and helping people understand what they can do to affect environmental change.
The real biggie? "Ecofriendly routing" is coming to Maps as standard, so you'll be offered the most fuel-efficient means to get to your destination if it's not already the fastest. A new AI-powered feature that's so obvious we can't quite believe it hadn't been rolled out already, it will save drivers money on fuel as well as holding the potential to eradicate more than one million tons of carbon emissions per year. That's roughly the equivalent of removing more than 200,000 cars from the road in one fell swoop. The navigation change is arriving in the US today and will come to Europe in 2022.
"We've invested a lot in the technology that allows us to look at different options between routes," says Russell Dicker, the senior director of transportation at Google Maps. "For me personally, if I have a bunch of cranky kids in the backseat, I might want to save a minute or two. But we often find that the fastest route and the fuel-efficient route are one and the same now that we have that calculation."
It's not just Google Maps that is seeing several green-minded updates though. From today CO2 emissions data is being incorporated into almost every Google Flights result, with labelling applied to those options that have significantly higher or lower emissions. Hotels with certified eco-credentials will also be highlighted as your search for where to stay and there's a new Nest Renew service for Google's smart thermostat that can adjust your energy usage to when your local grid is less reliant on polluting fossil fuels.
Of course, a big part of the world's response to climate change has to come from governments and big business, not just people themselves. That's why Google pledged last year to operate on carbon-free energy everywhere by 2030, one of the most ambitious environmental pledges to date by any company, having been carbon neutral since 2007. If you're going to talk the talk on the climate crisis, this is the kind action you need to back it up with.
Today's changes are also a first step in Google's efforts to help its users understand the complex and sometimes overwhelming issues at hand, with Search users also set to see revised and more informative results when it comes to climate change itself, including the price of electric cars and the energy efficiency of home appliances. Although travel is the starting point for today, it sounds as though an even bigger topic is on the table next.
"For people that do fly, that travel ends up being a very large proportion of their family's environmental footprint and so that's one reason we wanted to start there," says Nick Zakrasek, senior product manager for sustainability. "That being said, I think we're going to need all of the features we launched today and more to combat the worst effects of climate change and we are absolutely looking into what we might be able to do in the realm of food choices."
INTRODUCING... GQ Recommends GQ's edit of all the best products, deals and launches, from fashion and grooming to tech, home and fitness, delivered straight to your inbox in our new newsletter
Queries about this email? Contact datacontroller@condenast.co.uk |
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site