You open the app to avoid traffic, then you find yourself making the same mistake over and over again: you look at the arrival time and miss everything else. The useful point, here, lies in a function that on Google Maps remains half hidden in the settings and which affects the full much more than it seems. It’s called “Prefer low-consumption routes” and is used to get you there with less fuel burned, when there is a route with similar times but a more favorable trend. Google describes it as a mode that uses AI and driving data to suggest roads with fewer hills, less traffic and smoother speeds.
Google Maps can choose a lighter route to the tank
The function is activated in Settings > Navigation > Route options. From the settings you can also indicate the type of engine in Your vehicles: petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric. It’s not a decorative detail, because Google explains that the most efficient route changes based on the car you’re driving. A diesel performs better at higher speeds, while hybrids and electrics perform better at stop and go. When the most efficient route does not coincide with the fastest one, Maps signals it with the green leaf and also shows you the difference compared to the other option.
Here it is best to remain sober about the numbers, because there is no identical percentage for all routes. Google’s official sources do not promise the same fixed savings every time. However, they show concrete examples: in a case illustrated by Google, the alternative route saved 13% of petrol, and the company explains that the estimate depends on traffic, gradients, consistency of speed and engine selected. It is the classic margin that, taken once, seems small; repeated every day, it ceases to be.
Prices clear
Both apps show fuel prices. Google Maps indicates that gas stations can show current prices in the business profile on Maps and in Search. Waze, for its part, allows you to set your favorite fuel, choose the brand and sort the stations by price, distance or brand. Plus it also allows you to change and update prices directly from the app.
Just go to Menu > Settings > Petrol Stations and there you can set three things: preferred fuel type, preferred brand and criterion with which to see the stations in the results, i.e. price, distance or brand. Waze also points out that if you use Android Auto or CarPlay, these preferences must be set on your phone first.
For prices, Waze shows them in distributor searches and in their listings. If you want to update them, you need to open Waze on your phone, tap the Report icon, open the full menu, enter Gas prices, choose the distributor, tap Edit prices and send the new values.
However, there is an important limitation: price updating is not supported on Android Auto, Android Automotive and CarPlay. Additionally, Waze says that, to change prices, you must be within about 500 meters of the gas station and have driven at least 100 miles. Precisely because prices are updated by users, they may not always be perfectly aligned with the real ones.
The real difference, therefore, is no longer “who shows the price” but how they make you spend less. Google Maps also works before the stop, while you are still driving, and tries to cut consumption along the way. Waze comes into its own when you have to choose where to stop, with very practical management of station searches and related prices. Google Maps, on the other hand, puts the low-energy route on the table as a documented and central function, now available globally. Used together, the two apps stop competing and start being really useful.
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