Google Aims to Eliminate Driving Anxiety For EV Drivers, Rolls Out New Map Features

At a recent event in Paris, tech giant Google announced the launch of new map features which aims to alleviate symptoms of anxiety for EV drivers.

The new map feature offers a glanceable view and a more efficient and eco-friendlier route plan for EV drivers.

On any trip that will require an EV charging stop, Maps will suggest the best stop based on factors like traffic, charge level, and expected energy consumption.  

If a driver doesn’t want to visit a particular station, they can easily swap it up with another with just a few taps.

In this upgrade, Google map will now show drivers when the places they are searching have on-site charging stations, such as grocery stores, and also allows them to search and locate very fast charging stations.

Google also introduced the immersive view on the map, in this, the tech giant combined billions of street views and serial images to create three-dimensional models of the location a driver is exploring.

The immersive view allows users to see inside restaurants using something called neural radiance fields (NeRF), which transforms images into 3D renderings that include detail like lighting and texture.

The new Google map features will be available globally in the coming months to electric vehicles with Google built in, such as Polestar, Renault, Honda, GM Brands, and soon ford.

Investors King understands that in 2021, Google Maps began rolling out features to assist EV drivers to plan a trip with stress-free routes and charging stop recommendations, using newly developed routing algorithms to search and filter for the most convenient charging stations.

The search giant took it a step further by offering more efficient and eco-friendly route planning rather than just showing the typical shortest travel time. The feature was expanded to include electric vehicles in July 2022, allowing users to find the most energy-efficient routes.