Google says a forthcoming update for its Maps app could help reduce the number of collisions on the roads.
The web giant said its route planning software will offer a route that is most likely to reduce the chance of encountering a hard-braking moment.
Citing research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, hard-braking moments — incidents along a route that cause a driver to decelerate sharply — can be a leading indicator of a potential car crash.
When the feature is introduced, it could ‘eliminate 100 million hard-braking events each year’.
Google said artificial intelligence and navigation information will be used to determine which routes are less likely to feature heavy braking.
The firm is also adding a feature that shows whether a part of a town is busier than usual. Google said the update will allow people to find busy hotspots to avoid — citing streets near a local farmers’ market as an example.
It will also identify popular parts of town and allow users to ‘scope out lively neighbourhoods at a glance to discover interesting things to do’.
Finding a cleaner route
From next month, Google Maps will also alert motorists if their route takes them through a Clean Air Zone, helping them better understand the environmental impact their journey has.
Launching in June on both Apple iOS and Android operating systems, Google said drivers ‘can quickly know if your vehicle is allowed in the area’, or be provided with a new route that doesn’t take in a low-emission zone.
It is also building a new routing model optimised for lower car fuel consumption. The algorithm is based on factors such as road incline and traffic congestion, and will default to the route with the lowest carbon footprint when it has approximately the same estimated time of arrival (ETA) as the fastest route.
In cases where the eco-friendly option could ‘significantly increase’ an ETA, Google said it would let motorists compare the relative CO2 impact between routes.
Eco-friendly routes are planned to launch in the USA ‘later this year’, with a global expansion on the way. Motoring Research was told: ‘we do not have any specific times for the UK rollout’, however.
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