Every month they send me an email with my km covered by each mean of transport. But how does the algorithm tell if i was riding my bike, or in a slow car? How can it distinguish buses from car? Only because buses stop more often, or because there’s more people with Android devices on the bus?
Thanks!
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Not sure how they do it exactly but a few commenters have provided some insight.
Add to this, Google doesn’t only track your GPS. It’s also harvesting the travel data of everyone else. If you’re on a bus, your GPS will be extremely similar to those of at least a few other people for a period of time. Google also has bus schedules / GPS for many cities to cross-reference. In my city there are transit apps that already take data from riders to improve accuracy of real time bus schedules.
If you’re in a car vs bike, the speed, acceleration, when you stop vs when other people stop for traffic lights etc will generally give them an idea. If you go on bike paths or trails, that would be even more telling.
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