How to obtain eco-friendly directions on Google Maps while conserving gas

Back in May, Google announced that its popular Maps app would start delivering the most eco-friendly routes that will use the least amount of gas possible. Google does this by using the data related to road grades, traffic flow, distance, and maps. If this feature is found on the Google Maps app on your iOS or Android phone, you'll see a green and white leaf icon next to your estimated driving time.

Google uses information obtained from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and throws in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to come up with these eco-friendly routes. The data employed by Google includes the average amount of fuel consumed by vehicles in your region, how steep the route's hills are, whether you'll be riding on local roads or the highway, and how much of the drive will require dealing with stop-and-go traffic.

But you do have to enable the app first. To do that, type in the name of any destination. You will see a three-dot menu appear to the right of the box that says "Your location." Tap on it and hit "Route options." That will bring you to a new page with an option that reads "Prefer fuel-efficient routes." Toggle that setting on if you want to save gas. According to the setting, when enabled "Maps will suggest fuel-efficient routes by default when arrival times are similar."

If you toggle off the setting, you will still see the leaf icon with the option to use the most eco-friendly route, but by default, the app will recommend the fastest route even if it is not the most fuel-efficient way to get to your destination. Sometimes though, the fastest and most fuel-efficient directions are one and the same. If you do take an eco-friendly route, Google will try to calculate the percentage of your fuel that you will save.

Popular Science reported that on one 35-minute trip it entered into Google Maps, the app estimated that using the suggested eco-friendly route would result in the savings of 9% of its fuel although the actual time spent on the road would be three minutes longer than the quickest route.

Just because you use the eco-friendly route it doesn't mean that you are guaranteed to save the percentage of gas that Google says that you will. That is only an estimate and the reality is that you might not save any fuel at all! Still, the app does give you the option of putting you on a longer route that might not use as much gas as a faster route might.

With Google rolling out the feature now (it was first mentioned months ago during the virtual Google I/O '21 developer conference, you might want to be on the lookout for an update to Google Maps.