Tired of subway delays? The MTA wants to fix that by strapping Google smartphones to New York trains

Google partnered with the MTA on a pilot program that involved using sounds recorded on smartphones attached to trains to detect track issues before they occur.

Rob Sarno has been with the New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) for 14 years. As assistant chief track officer, he assists maintenance and emergency response — which also meant teaching artificial intelligence systems what a damaged rail sounds like last year. For a few months starting in September, he helped a pilot program between the MTA and Google Public Sector, the search giant’s division that works with government agencies and educational institutions. The project involves retrofitting Google’s Pixel smartphones to certain subway cars to collect sounds and other data and feed it into Google’s Cloud. The data is then analyzed to spot patterns that could indicate track defects before they become a problem. “By being able to detect early defects in the rails, it saves not just money but also time – for both crew members and riders,” Demetrius Crichlow, New York City Transit president, said in a statement released February 27. New York is just one major city to have implemented AI in the hopes of improving transit systems. In 2023, infrastructure consulting firm Aecom completed a pilot program for the New Jersey Transit system that used the technology to analyze customer flow and crowd management, and in 2024, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) uses AI to enhance security by detecting guns. Also in 2024, Beijing introduced a facial recognition system to be used in place of transit tickets and cards to reduce lines during rush hours. The pilot program between the MTA and Google — dubbed TrackInspect — is just the latest indication that companies are exploring whether the technology can make transit more efficient, although whether such an initiative will ever be deployed widely remains to be seen. TrackInspect which was announced last week, started as a proof-of-concept developed by Google Public Sector in partnership with its Rapid Innovation Team for the MTA at no cost, according to the transit agency. However, it’s uncertain whether the project will expand into a permanent program since it’s unclear how much it would cost the MTA, which already needs billions of dollars to complete existing projects.