I’m hoping Google will soon come up with a heat map that shows the estimated energy required to travel a route on Google Maps overlaid onto the topology. So for example, accelerating from a stopping point, up hills and areas of high speed will show darker red, and braking to a stop and travelling down hill will show green, indicating the opportunity for regenerative braking. This will allow route planning that considers energy use, in the same way that traffic data helps estimate the time to destination now.

However the greatest benefit is that it helps give a range estimate for electric vehicles with a high degree of accuracy that will eliminate range anxiety all together. This allows the use of smaller batteries that will greatly reduce the cost of electric vehicles.

The data could be licensed to vehicle makers, integrated into vehicle management systems and apps for all transport types, though i’m most interested in the use for bikes!