By Richard Read

1,260 views Mar 7, 2011

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2012 Hyundai Veloster

Today's navigation systems are great at finding the shortest route between Point A and Point B. Some even integrate traffic data to identify alternate paths if the shortest one is congested. But Hyundai's newest navigation platform will also tell you which route is the greenest, keeping CO2 out of the air and cash in your wallet.

The technology was developed using NAVTEQ's Advanced Driver Assistance System, or ADAS. ADAS incorporates all the usual bells and whistles you'd expect from mapping software, then adds predictive modeling for traffic (so it can guess where jams are likely to occur) as well as topographical data (so it knows road slopes and curvature). When all that data is taken into account, two routes that might at first seem comparable may in fact be entirely different.

Imagine, for example, that you're in a city like Los Angeles, with some hilly terrain. Your Hyundai offers two ways to get you to the mall -- one that's fairly direct but goes through heavily trafficked areas, and another that takes a slightly longer but less congested route over some low hills. Many of us would choose the latter, right? After all, no one enjoys riding bumper to bumper, and it would seem to waste gas, too. But while the route over the hills might take less time, it could end up using more fuel -- and thus costing you more -- because of all the extra energy your car expends traveling up those hills. If your ride comes equipped with stop-start technology, option #1 seems even better. Slow and steady wins the race. 

To test out this way of thinking, Hyundai and NAVTEQ put the system through its paces in cities around the world, including Chicago, Frankfurt, New York, and Paris. And what they found is that when drivers took the "greener" route, they used at least 6% less on fuel than the drivers who opted for the "fastest" route -- and they frequently saved even more.

Our take

Many of us have access to navigation systems -- in-dash units, dash-top systems like TomTom's, or even smartphone apps  -- but we don't use them on a regular basis because we're traveling through well-known territory. We don't really want to expend the time and energy to pull up nav data when we're going to work, or the grocery store, or other places we go every day because in our minds, those routes don't change.

But in fact, they do change. We may know our hometown like the back of our hand, but thanks to the vagaries of traffic, what we think of as the "fastest" may not be. Nor is our fastest route necessarily the greenest. The Hyundai/NAVTEQ system offers a choice and makes for more informed drivers. And in our experience, more informed drivers are better drivers.

The ADAS technology debuted on the 2012 Hyundai Veloster at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. It's scheduled to appear on consumer models of the Veloster later this year, with others Hyundai models to follow.

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Hyundai Introduces 'Green Routing' Navigation Leveraging NAVTEQ's Advanced Content

Latest Hyundai navigation platform uses NAVTEQ's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) attributes for 'green' option

GENEVA, March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, has been chosen by Hyundai to provide advanced content for its new navigation platform which features a green routing option as well as the traditional 'shortest' or 'fastest' routes. Being showcased on the new Hyundai Veloster which is being launched at the Geneva Motor Show this week, the system will also be demonstrated at the NAVTEQ stand (7000, Hall 7).