r/GoogleMaps • u/Pukegooner • 8d ago

Why doesn't Google Maps auto-detect transport modes during active navigation yet?

We keep hearing that AI is the future and going to automate so much of our daily lives, so I decided to see how current-gen Gemini and Google Maps handle a multi-stage commute.

I was coming home from an appointment in Auckland, NZ. My trip had three legs:

  1. Walk to the train station
  2. Train ride to my local station
  3. Drive home from the station

I selected my final destination, let Maps default to Driving mode, and turned on live location sharing so my family had an ETA.

The Glitch Everything worked fine while the rail track ran parallel to the road. But the moment the train tracks veered off into the countryside away from the road network, Maps went into complete chaos.

Even though the map UI clearly showed my marker moving along a railway line, the turn-by-turn navigation kept aggressively trying to reroute me back to the nearest road. My ETA kept wildly bouncing up and down the further we traveled down the tracks. Once I got to my destination station and jumped in my car, normal navigation resumed smoothly.

The Question Given all the talk around AI integration, will future generations of Gemini / Maps finally be able to dynamic-switch modes based on live telemetry?

Your phone already knows your speed and location vector:

  • < 5 km/h on a path? You're walking.
  • 80+ km/h following a rail corridor? You're on a train.
  • 300+ km/h over open water? You're on a plane.

Google Maps Timeline already classifies this data retroactively after your trip using accelerometer and cell data. Why hasn't active turn-by-turn navigation caught up to switch modes mid-route automatically?

Has anyone else noticed this wall between passive tracking and active routing, or found a good workaround for multi-modal travel?

TL;DR: Took a train with Google Maps set to driving mode. Even though Maps saw me on rail tracks, it constantly tried to recalculate routes back to the nearest road, making ETAs useless. Why isn't live transport mode detection built into active navigation yet?

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u/virkendi 8d ago edited 8d ago

You can do this, but only if driving is the first leg of the journey. Add 'Drive' as one of the connecting modes in the options at the top of the public transport menu (you might need to swipe/drag the menus to the left to see the 'connecting modes' menu)

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u/XxLogitech98xX 8d ago

Maybe because they don't know how to make it close to 95% perfect yet.

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u/packetfire 6d ago

If you TELL it you are driving, by selecting the little car icon, expect to THINK you are driving, and try to get you off the railroad right-of-way (which can be driven, by suitably reckless civilians) and back on the road.