I’m no expert, but the “eco” routes don’t usually pass the smell test with me. I’ll be routed away from a thoroughfare that’s mostly flat/downhill to take a slightly-shorter side street that’s a steep incline. It just seems like half-baked greenwashing.

In vacations on Mediterranean islands it took us through barely usable "roads" in the middle of a forest trail, thankfully nothing bad came out of it.

Beats me how it was supposed to be a fuel saving road, other than doing that by virtue of destroying the car.

* * *

In the Canary Islands it took us down a utility road that was literally being used as a mountain mike trail. We were in an Opel Corso. Fortunately a beater, and my friend’s superior driving skill got us out, but just barely. We were resigned to abandoning the car… and Google had treated it just like a regular paved road.

Probably best to avoid the Connie Sue Highway and other roads of the Len Beadell desert network then.

TIL... for someone like me who's never been to Australia and doesn't know much about its geography, that's a pretty crazy story!

And it turns out Connie Sue is still out there, running desert tours except not now because of lingering Covid restrictions.

> Connie's work background started with 10 years of general nursing and midwifery, 14 years as a violinist in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and has studied Computer Systems Engineering at TAFE part-time.

Interesting people!

http://www.beadelltours.com.au/interest.html

Long before I wrote earth scale digital mapping software in 1990s (yes, before google Maps .. and even Keyhole) I was taught how to use a theodolite by Len Beadall (I was ~ 12 or so at the time and pretty keen).

If you're interested in the landscape those roads pass through, here's a 13 minute intro:

Good roads until 6:00 minutes in .. and then they take the David Carnegie Rd.

Desert Raid 2017 - Two Days From Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL44EAyz8Qc

The net altitude change is the same for all routes between two points.

Even with a car with regenerative breaking, going up then down is less efficient than staying flat/just down

In the extreme case, one route might take no fuel at all vs one that climbs a mountain before dropping

Just checked my maps app and I do not have this option, but have recently been dealing with Maps picking utterly non-sensical routes (random small streets rather than main roads).

It feels like the sensitivity to traffic is turned up way too high.

The routing can be pretty silly. I'm not going to journey down some backroad for a projected 3% fuel saving.

Google Maps keeps thinking that road repair that lowers 4 lane highway to 2 lanes means that the road is closed.

While you are driving on the "closed" road Maps keeps insisting on turning back and suggesting silly alternate routes.

Had guests who trusted Google and took the Google alternate route losing 30 minutes in the process .