I have been having the same problems with keeping Pandora in shuffle mode on my smartphone. I connect to my car's system and Pandora goes out of shuffle mode. When I load Pandora through my Sony Android TV the application stays in shuffle my stations mode. This problem seems to be with my smartphone application.
I'm trying to replicate on my end. To clarify your steps, are you playing Pandora in shuffle prior to connecting to Android Auto or do you start Pandora once connected?
If you start Pandora once connected, do you look for and start a station or just press play? Do you know if the same thing happens if playing Pandora only on your phone or with a bluetooth speaker?
I have the same issue in my 2021 f150. Pandora always boots in station mode. I keep my pandora in shuffle so this is highly annoying. I have offline mode turned off as well and it still switches to offline mode while driving then never switches back to shuffle. Very upsetting.
Maybe cause you're driving in certain areas its picking up peoples wifi in that area and I say cause mine does that when I am in the car with my family members
