US EditionNew York subways testing system using smartphones to find track defects
- Between September 2024 and January 2025, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Google conducted a pilot program using Google Pixel smartphones to detect subway track defects, identifying 92% of defect locations found by human inspectors according to the MTA.
- The collaboration with Google aims to enhance track inspection efforts and could help prevent train delays for over 4 million daily riders.
- The technology, if fully implemented, would provide track inspectors with advanced tools, allowing them to focus on fixing issues rather than identifying them.
- Human inspections will remain necessary until technology is precise enough, as noted by an assistant vice president at WSP.
10 Articles
10 Articles
New York subways testing system using smartphones to find track defects
An A Line subway train arrives at the Rockaway-Mott Ave station on May 23, 2023. New York City Transit has launched a pilot program using smartphones to find track defects following an initial test on the A Line. MTA/Marc A. Hermann NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has begun a pilot program with a division of Google that uses smartphones to help detect potential subway track defects. The program announced Thursday, Feb. 27, b…
Sensing delays: NYC Transit uses every-day phone technology to look for track defects
NYC trains may soon be faster and more efficient with the help of some innovative technology. From September 2024 to January 2025, the MTA partnered with Google Public Sector on a pilot program using Google Pixel smartphones designed to detect defects and problems more quickly — a move that could potentially avoid significant train delays for NYC Transit’s more than 4 million daily riders. In what sounds like something straight out of a spy mo…
Google's pixel smartphones are now being alienated from New York's transport industry because it has been discovered that the devices can be used to detect problems in the rail network. (Continue reading)
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