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Google is helping to reduce transportation emissions through its Project Green Light initiative. Project Green Light uses AI to help city traffic engineers optimize traffic lights at intersections to improve traffic flow and cut emissions. Google is expanding Project Green Light to more cities across the globe in 2023.
Fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps
Google is also helping people get from A to B more sustainably by providing fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps. Fuel-efficient routing uses AI to suggest routes that have fewer hills, less traffic, and constant speeds with the same or similar ETA. Google is rolling out fuel-efficient routing to India and Indonesia in 2023, and it is available in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Egypt.
New train route suggestions on Search
To help people find other sustainable modes of transportation, like rail, new train route suggestions will soon appear on Search when you look for flights.
Public transit or walking suggestions in Google Maps
And in the near future in France, when people look up driving directions, Maps will show public transit or walking suggestions next to driving routes if travel times are comparable and practical.
Related Article: Google Launches New Sustainability Tools to Help Businesses and Cities Map Environmental Information
Deeper electric vehicle insights in Search
Electric vehicles (EVs) are another area of transportation where Google is seeing growing interest. In fact, global EV-related searches have nearly doubled over the past two years. For people shopping for an EV, it’s now even easier to understand the costs associated with buying a new vehicle thanks to new insights in Search.
Updated Fuel Cost Calculator
Google is also adding an updated Fuel Cost Calculator to electric and fuel-based car results to help drivers understand the cost of charging compared with filling up at the pump. This is available now in 21 countries around the world.
Battery range explorer
Google’s new battery range explorer shows how far drivers can go with a specific model car on a single charge. Drivers can also customize a route to see how many charges are needed along the way based on factors like elevation change and speed limits. These battery range insights roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks and in Europe early next year.
Minimizing the impact of long-distance travel
Aviation is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize. Contrails — the thin, white lines you sometimes see behind aircraft — account for roughly 35% of aviation’s global warming impact. To mitigate this, Google Research teamed up with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy to combine AI and huge amounts of data to predict where contrails will form and how planes can avoid making them. This trial reduced contrails by 54%.
Now, Google is broadening its efforts via a new partnership with EUROCONTROL, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation. EUROCONTROL will be able to provide aircraft flying through their airspace with information about how to avoid contrails.