New AI-powered website helps you find the best driving roads

How we plan our road trips has changed enormously over the last 20 years and this new tool could prove to be the next step. That website, that evo has partnered with, is called New Roads (newroads.co) and incorporates artificial intelligence. We’ve come a long way from a highlighter-soaked Philips Navigator… 

‘Created to take the guesswork out and bring the thrill back into driving’, New Roads can tailor the route it suggests to you based on the car you drive, how much time you have and other preferences even down to where you’d like to stop for a coffee and at what time. It can even recommend hotels, restaurants and any other transportation needs, like ferry and train crossings. And, crucially, if the road is suitable for your car.

The software behind the New Roads engine is built around a map of pretty much every road in the UK. Going beyond what Google Maps or other route planners offer, it has details of surfaces, the width of the road and if it is actually a road and not simply an old track that’s still on a map.

Based on your requirement, the software will deliver a different route based on whether you’ve told it you’re driving a McLaren 675LT or a Toyota GR Yaris. No, it won’t take you off-road in the Yaris, but it’ll know that tighter, twistier lanes are better-suited to the nimble hot hatch than the low-slung supercar. It even knows where the speedhumps are. It can also advise based on potential conditions, prevailing weather and the time of year you’re planning your trip.

> Best UK driving roads - our favourite roads within easy reach of British cities

How does it work? Like many AI language models and assistants, it builds your route via the prompts you give it. You effectively have a conversation with the software to carve out a plan for your ideal road trip.

For example, you could type in ‘I’d like a route that goes from Bedford to Anglesey, that gets me to Wales as quickly as possible before swapping to fun roads perfect for a Lotus Elise, with a hotel stop on the Welsh border, local to a petrol station that sells Super Unleaded and a curry house’. And once the route is presented you can modify it with additional prompts, such as roads you know you want to take in, or avoid or good spots to stop to take a picture of your car.

Once you have your route, you export to Google Maps, for maximum Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility without having to deal with Google’s flawed checkpoint system.

The app has been under closed Beta development for several months, with the 37 early users having covered 6,613 miles of real world testing. The site has also been put through its paces in the virtual world with 25,720 miles of digital testing.

The full New Roads experience will cost £9.99 a month, or £95 for a year. This includes the ability to export a route to Google Maps, share it with a friend, unlimited prompts, unlimited trips and to curate and save your favourite trips. This in addition to what you get with the free version, which allows you to tailor your garage and save road trips. The free version allows three road trips and up to 25 prompts.