In celebration of Google Maps' 15th birthday, artist Simon Weckert published the results of his Google Maps Hack Project which he carried out in the past summer. His goal is to create a massive traffic jam in Google Maps using 99 smartphones and a red wagon.
The idea of this experiment started three years ago when Simon Weckert noticed an unusual traffic jam in Google Maps amid a vehicle less road. Soon after, he realized that it was not cars making the "traffic jam" but the massive crows of people and their phones that had tricked Google into seeing heavy traffic in an almost empty street.
Weckert then thought of doing an experiment to generate the same scenario without people, but with only their phones. He then proceeded to borrow phones from rental companies and friends until he had the 99 devices he needed. During the day, he would walk randomly up and down a street, pulling his little red wagon packed with smartphones.
Although it took an hour for Google Maps to catch up, Weckert eventually achieved his goal and created a long red line in the app interface such as what one would see indicationg that traffic has slowed down - even without cars on the road. Weckert successfully tricked Google Maps that there was a line of buses going back and fourth.
According to Weekly Reviewer, Google said in a statement that the traffic data in Google Maps continuously refreshes, including data from people who have location services turned on and contributions from Maps. They further added that Google appreciates people seeing creative ways to use their software as these help them improve maps in the future.
Weckert was not the only person who tried to outsmart Google. Others used more high-tech ways apart from pulling a smart phone- filled red wagon across the street. But for the artist, the whole point of his experiment was its simplicity.
He said that he was reaching for a wider audience and he wanted his experiment to be understood by many. Thus, he made the experiment without the algorithms and math which might be confusing to others. He wanted not to only to hack Google but also to tell a story,
A month ago, Weckert released the results of his pet project to his website. On Saturday, he then proceeded to post about it on Twitter which got over 14,000 retweets. A few days after which his Google Maps Hack has broken the internet.
The experiment got its attention because people found it astounding that a giant like Google can be fooled with something as simple as a red-wagon and 99 smartphones with their GPS turned on. However, this also shows that the technology people have put their faith into can be fooled, and that these products are not perfect.
Weckert then proceeded to remind people that maps are very powerful things which can be used for military and political purposes. Thus, people should not be highly focused on these data interpreting it as the real world, and forgetting that these are just representations of reality.
