Fake Google Maps Traffic Jam with 99 Phones
05 Feb 2020, 12:00
Artist Simon Weckert recently set out on an unusual piece of art, if you can call it that. With the aim of hacking Google Maps, Simon transported a handcart filled with 99 phones around the city of Berlin. As you can see from the video, Weckert was able to turn green (traffic free) streets into red bumper-to-bumper ones. This is because Google Maps sees the 99 phones as 99 people, moving very slowly through an area.
While it’s extremely cool to see Simon’s effect on the navigation app in real time, it also demonstrates how one can actually alter the way traffic moves around the city. It’s cool to see the roads change from green to red, but those red roads also mean that a car’s navigation system will avoid them. So where Simon’s cart goes, your car will avoid. He shows the impact that these software changes can have on the physical world, especially when they are ‘hacked’ to do something incorrect.
Check out Simon Weckert incredibly original idea in the video below!