Man creates traffic jams on Google Maps by carting 99 phones

An artist in Berlin fooled Google Maps by creating virtual traffic jams using 99 phones around on the streets of Germany’s capital Berlin.

Simon Weckert in what has been dubbed a new Google Maps experiment to prove the technology is not always foolproof posted a video on YouTube showing how he managed to “hack” Google Maps to create virtual traffic jams on the streets of Berlin.

He loaded 99 smartphones running Google Maps into a cart which was wheeled around various streets in Berlin, including outside the Google office.

The phones ostensibly made Google Maps think there was a high concentration of users on those streets with the slow-moving traffic. Resultantly, the navigation app started showing virtual traffic jams by turning green streets to red.

Google Maps uses data generated by users to identify fast or slow-moving traffic as well as traffic jams.

By analyzing things like speed, location, and other crowdsourced data, Google generates a live traffic map of an area or a road.

There was no official word from Google on Weckert’s experiment. However, a Senior Software Engineer for Google Maps has tweeted that he believes it’s possible to pull off such a stunt.