From the morning of Wednesday 7 September, it will be possible to choose an "Eco Route" in Google Maps, which may not be faster, but will be "greener". (Photo: Shutterstock)

From the morning of Wednesday 7 September, it will be possible to choose an "Eco Route" in Google Maps, which may not be faster, but will be "greener". (Photo: Shutterstock)

More than a year after starting to roll out Google Maps Eco Routes in the US, the American giant is launching a European version in Luxembourg from this Wednesday morning. The aim is to provide an alternate route that is greener than the fastest one.

Only time will tell if the new option that Google is launching this Wednesday in 40 countries, including Luxembourg, a year after its roll-out in the US and Canada, will have an influence on carbon emissions. The aim of the American giant is to save the equivalent of the pollution created by 200,000 cars per year.

Whether it's the type of engine (petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric), the gradient of the road, traffic patterns, road types, speed limits or the presence of alternative modes of transport (walking, cycling or public transport), during a briefing of European journalists last week, Google did not want to elaborate on the criteria used by its machine learning models.

The models were built with the US Renewable Energy Laboratory--which has 45 years of data to work with and --and adapted with European data, again unsourced.

"Sometimes there will be no difference between the two routes, sometimes there are not even two routes to get from point A to point B, but the rest of the time people can perfectly accept taking two to five minutes longer to reach their final destination," explained the project developer.

Will the feature be added to Waze, which many drivers use to avoid traffic jams? "We are discussing this, but at this stage we have nothing more to announce," Google officials said.

How the feature has been received in the US and Canada is also a mystery. "Good," the two spokesmen said, without elaborating.

How to activate the feature

Enable or disable fuel efficient routes after getting a route

- On your mobile device, open the Google Maps app.

- Search for your destination or tap on the map.

- At the bottom left, tap on "Directions".

- At the top right, tap on "Route options".

- Enable or disable "Prefer fuel-efficient routes".

Enable or disable fuel efficient routes in the Google Maps application

- On your mobile device, open the Google Maps application.

- Tap your profile picture or initial

- Click on "Settings".

- Click on "Navigation settings". Scroll down to "Route options", press "Prefer fuel-efficient routes".

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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