Release Gen 1.1: Built around the drives you asked for
When we launched New Roads, our ambition was simple: to make great driving easier to find.
Not just the famous roads. Not just the obvious routes. Not just the journeys that have already been written about a hundred times. We wanted to help drivers discover the roads that feel personal. The quiet passes, the flowing B-roads, the coastal stretches, the forest routes, the sweeping climbs and the unexpected detours that remind you why driving still matters.
But from the beginning, we also knew New Roads would never be finished. It would grow with the people using it and be shaped by the early adopters who provide regular feedback.
Gen 1.1 marks a major step forward for New Roads as an AI road trip planner for drivers across Europe. With expanded country coverage, native language support, subscriber guides, EV charging integration and faster route generation, New Roads is becoming an ever-more capable way to plan scenic driving routes, weekend escapes and longer European road trips without the usual hours of research. All thanks to you.
You asked us to go further: Now in 45 countries
When New Roads first launched, we offered AI-powered, hyper-personalised drives across seven countries: the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
For many users, that already unlocked a new way to plan. But one piece of feedback came through clearly: drivers wanted more.
More countries. More borders crossed. More freedom to explore Europe properly. Because the best driving journeys rarely respect neat boundaries. A brilliant road trip might begin in the UK, gather pace in northern France, climb through Switzerland, spill into Italy and end somewhere you had not expected to stop.
So, with Gen 1.1, New Roads now covers 45 European countries.
This is a big moment for us, but more importantly, it is a big moment for our customers. It means more mountain roads, more coastal drives, more hidden valleys, more forgotten towns, more opportunities to build a journey around the car in your garage and the time you have available.
It also means New Roads can better serve the kind of locations that not many explore. Places like Romania, Croatia and Montenegro which all have spectacular roads and even less traffic!
You asked us to make it feel more natural, regardless of language
Another thing we heard from customers was that planning should feel effortless, no matter where you are from or what language you speak.
The original New Roads experience was built in English with adaptive language use on the chat, which made sense for our first release. But as soon as drivers across Europe began using the platform, it became clear that language should not be a barrier to a great drive.
With Gen 1.1, New Roads now supports native languages across both chat and itineraries. That means customers can speak to New Roads in their own language, and the platform will respond in that language too.
By supporting native language planning, New Roads becomes more intuitive, more inclusive and more useful to the people it was built for.
You asked us for more inspiration
With Gen1.0 we launched with 9 guides to help you with ideas on where to go for great drives.
Many of our customers asked for more inspiration around specific areas and types of drives. They wanted starting points. Ideas. Guides. Something that could spark a route before the AI shaped it around them. Even though its super quick on New Roads to plan a road trip, setting up these guides still takes the team time to generate. Many of which we have driven ourselves.
So in Gen 1.1 we’ll be introducing more guides that are accessible to subscribers.
These guides are designed to give subscribers more ways into the New Roads experience whilst making it even easier to plan.
You asked us to better support electric drivers
The driving community is changing.
Petrol still has its place in the culture but more and more drivers are experiencing brilliant routes from behind the wheel of an electric car. That includes performance EVs, electric grand tourers and everyday cars being used for properly memorable journeys.
We saw this in how people were using New Roads, and we heard it in the feedback.
EV drivers wanted the same sense of freedom, but with better practical support. A great route loses some of its magic if charging becomes stressful, uncertain or poorly planned.
So, with Gen 1.1, we have added EV charging station integration under the petrol tab. Simply slide the toggle between the two fuel types.
It is a practical update, but one with a very human purpose: to make the drive feel easier. To reduce the worry. To let EV drivers plan with more confidence and enjoy the road rather than constantly thinking about range.
This is just the beginning of a complete make over for EV drivers so bear with us whilst we continue to update this functionality.
You asked us to make it faster and sharper
Some of the most important improvements in Gen 1.1 are the ones you may not notice directly.
Under the bonnet, New Roads has had a significant upgrade. The platform is faster, more capable and more accurate, with full LLM upgrades giving it a wider and newer knowledge base.
That means better results, delivered more quickly.
For customers, the benefit is simple: less time waiting, more time planning, and ultimately more time driving. The technology has improved, but the purpose has not changed. AI is not the story for us. The drive is.
There is a lot of noise around AI at the moment. Some of it is exciting. Some of it is exhausting. At New Roads, we are not interested in technology for technology’s sake.
We are interested in using it to reconnect people with something deeply analogue: the emotional pull of a great road.
The road ahead
Gen 1.1 is not just a bigger version of New Roads. It is a more useful, more considered and more responsive one.
It reflects what our early users told us they needed. More countries. More languages. More inspiration. Better EV support. Faster results. Smarter planning. But beneath all of that, the mission remains the same. New Roads exists to help people spend less time planning and more time driving.
If you have any further feedback on what you’d like to see in Gen1.2 then please do reach out through our feedback form and let us know what you’d like to see.
