After I made the initial post about this, however long ago, the problem did go away after a software update. As I recall, it was Android Auto that updated. Then everything was fine until a couple of months ago, when it started returning to the channels list after a thumb-down. I'm having the issue again, and it seems like several others are as well. And you're completely correct. This is a huge safety issue because it takes the driver's eyes off the road every time Pandora's algorithm plays something stupid or horrible. Which seems to happen in clumps of 5 or more horrible songs in a row recently. ... View more

For what it's worth, they did go away for a while, although the "goes back to station selection screen after thumbing a song down" thing has reappeared for me, and is present in all three of the vehicles I have available to test with. ... View more