A Sustainable Journey to the Future with Embedded Navigation

Mission Zero is impacting automakers across the globe, where, instead of being just a buzzword it has become a real driving force for change in the industry, altering everything from supply chains and manufacturing, to how vehicle navigation plans a route for your journey.

Sustainability is in the spotlight in basically every industry, and it’s in even greater focus in automotive. The steadily increasing demand for EVs versus fossil fuel cars is one of the most visible changes we see when it comes to greener transportation. If we dig a bit deeper within automotive, we see that it spreads much further than just what powers the vehicle. Let’s highlight one segment in particular, navigation. Often an afterthought, considered only as software that takes us from point A to B, fully integrated, embedded navigation offers so much more. Take for instance eco- and green- routing, which allow you to plan optimized journeys in eco-friendly ways.

Eco-routing is the identification of the most energy-efficient route for a vehicle to travel between two points and is offered as a way for drivers to reduce fuel consumption and consequently reduce the carbon footprint of their journey. For solutions like this, powertrain data must be accessible for it to be truly effective, this is something only embedded navigation solutions can provide. Embedded navigation, like NNG iGO Navigation, has offered this option for many years. However, a recent spate of B2C focused apps have recently entered this space, raising awareness of the topic, but while they offer similar features, their online-first approach, with limited or no offline fallback, makes the customer experience abysmal.

Pre-set data vs direct, real-time data

Onboard navigation makes use of numerous data sets to recommend the most energy-efficient route with reduced carbon footprint to drivers. These data sets can be input directly by the driver or they can come straight from the powertrain and related systems. Although it’s worth noting that the difference in precision between these two methods can be significant. When the navigation connects directly to the powertrain, vehicle data is used to build a consumption model that can be used to address range anxiety, not by generating an estimate, but by delivering route plans based on hard data. All route selections can be compared with a green alternative: an overview of mileage, drive time, and CO2 emissions helps drivers to be eco-friendly and save money on fuel costs. In EV cars, the software reduces and even eliminates range anxiety by calculating the necessary stops and available compatible stations, taking into account driver behavior, incorporating it into the route. This is where smartphone navigation comes up short. As it lacks integration with vehicle systems, it can only receive limited information from the driver, and 3rd party services, regarding the vehicle, calculating consumption based on generic information about the vehicle make and model. The system is built on information pulled from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and European Environment Agency which gives an educated guess at the consumption a specific route will have.

Planning a sustainable route with NNG

Many navigation providers are adapting to a green operation, but some have been leading the way. NNG introduced GREEN in 2010 and created ECO route planning in 2015, in part helping drivers avoid traffic congestion, while decreasing fuel consumption. Both algorithms aim to reduce CO2 emissions on the target route without significantly increasing travel time. Key assumptions include:

• Going uphill increases fuel consumption.

• Frequent acceleration and deceleration significantly increase fuel consumption.

• Higher speeds increase consumption because of air resistance.

• Ideal fuel efficiency is achieved by balancing urban and rural speeds.

To create optimal routes, NNG combines map and powertrain data with positioning and routing expertise to guide drivers on journeys that have a lower carbon footprint, and help automakers to reach their sustainability targets, saving energy, lowering pollution, and reducing overall environmental impact.