EcoRoute

Helping everyone to plan their travel smarter and live greener.

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Inspiration

This project was inspired by road-tripping across different cities in an electric car and realizing that even sustainable travel still comes with planning trade-offs: route distance, charging stops, and energy use at home all affect your total carbon footprint.

What it does

1/ Estimate Route Impact:

You enter your start and end locations and choose a travel mode (car, bus, or bike). The app calculates trip distance using the Google Maps Directions API and estimates CO₂ emissions for your mode of travel.

2/ Find alternative travel solutions with AI Travel Advisor

This app utilizes Gemini 2.5 Flash Model (via Google AI Studio), analyzes your combined data, and returns a clear summary plus three personalized, practical tips for reducing impact — for example, car-pooling, using public transport once a week, or switching to different transportation modes.

How we built it

Frontend:

  • Website was built using React with TypeScript and Vite. This frontend was also built using Google AI Studio.

Backend:

  • Backend files were built with TypeScript and deployed on Google Cloud Run. Features include handling locations input, tracking destination with the Google Map API, performing CO₂ calculations, and providing suggestions with Gemini integrations via AI Studio.

APIs / Services:

  • Google Maps Directions API:
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash: Built for AI Travel Advisor, helps with tips for an efficient travel lifestyle and saving the environment.

Deployment:

  • Containerized with Docker and deployed to Cloud Run for a fully serverless stack.

Challenges we ran into

  • Integrating multiple Google APIs with proper authentication in a short timeframe.

  • Crafting concise Gemini prompts that return structured JSON consistently and checking API implementations through Google Cloud Build.

  • Balancing scientific accuracy with simplicity for a quick demo.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a complete AI travel and sustainability app in 3 days.

  • Successfully combined real-world data (Google Maps API) with Gemini models for advanced reasoning in a single Cloud Run service.

What we learned

  • How to build an AI app with Gemini AI Studio, implement Google Maps API into the build, and deploy to Cloud Run.

  • Practical emission conversion methods for transportation and energy.

What's next for EcoRoute

  • Upgrade the AI Coach into a multi-agent system that can plan greener itineraries automatically.

  • Integrate live EV charging-station data and renewable-energy mix information for each region.

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