Google wants to make life even easier for electric car drivers by offering new features with Google Maps. These will be reserved for Android Automotive vehicles, such as the Renault Mégane, and will include an improved route planner.
At the moment
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While electric car sales continue to progress and have even surpassed those of diesel cars, there are still some slowdowns for many motorists. Among them, the price of course, but above all autonomy.
In fact, according to a recent report, French motorists would be ready to take the plunge as long as their car can go more than 400 kilometers on a single charge. An erroneous reasoning, for several reasons that we have detailed in an article. The key ? The development of the network of charging points, in full expansion, although the goal of 100,000 announced by the Government has not yet been reached.
easy trips
So it makes more sense to have a car with a small battery and therefore plug it in more often. But for that, you still have to find an accessible terminal. If more and more electric vehicles are equipped with an integrated route planner, some are not yet equipped, such as the MG 4, while Tesla cars do not integrate third-party operators, only Superchargers.
In this case, it is possible to use applications such as Chargemap or Waze, which will integrate a new route planning functionality. This was already partially offered this summer, but only indicated a limited number of terminals. Google Maps is not far behind, since it offers the search for charging points since 2019, first only in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and then with us.
However, this feature was not previously offered in electric cars equipped with Android Automotive, such as the Renault Mégane E-Tech or the Volvo XC40 and C40 Recharge. But now that is changing, as Google just announced in a release posted yesterday. The Californian firm has just revealed the arrival of very practical new functions for Google Maps integrated into Android Automotive.
In addition to the advent of immersive view and augmented reality, as well as the ability to check a route without unlocking your smartphone, the company has also looked to electric cars. Therefore, it offers new functions only dedicated to vehicles equipped with the Android automotive system.
A new smart planner
Owners will thus be able to enjoy a whole new smart route planner, which could quickly make those offered by manufacturers obsolete. Therefore, Android Automotive becomes even more immersive to better compete with Apple CarPlay, which also wants to become indispensable for motorists in the future.
Google Maps will be able to suggest the best stop depending on various parameters such as traffic, charge level and vehicle consumption. The novelty is the possibility of choosing another recharging stop, for example to stop earlier on the road, or in another place. This is better than what Tesla offers, since it is impossible to ask the scheduler to modify the charging stops automatically in a Model 3 for example.
The goal of the planner is to reduce travel time, although this is an increasingly important issue, even more than the greatest possible autonomy. This is regularly demonstrated by YouTuber Bjørn Nyland, who compares the time it takes various electric cars on the market to complete a 1,000 kilometer journey.
new features
There is also a new filter that allows you to choose ultra-fast terminals of more than 150 kW. Thus, it will be possible to fill your car battery in less than forty minutes, although the charging speed depends on several elements, and especially the outside temperature. We know that the cold does not go very well with electric cars, also affecting autonomy.
This feature has already been around Tesla for several months, but it doesn’t list all nearby charging stations. This is a wish of the American company, to avoid sending a driver to load in an unreliable terminal.
Finally, Google Maps will also indicate in the search results if the places where you are going to have a charging station. Thus, you can choose your supermarket according to the possibilities of being able to connect your vehicle or not.
For now, the company has not yet announced a specific date on which this update will be available.
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