Guy Causes Google Maps "Traffic Jams" By Carrying 99 Cell Phones

Okay, this is a pretty clever way to sow chaos.

Agent of Chaos

Google Maps makes it easy to spot heavy or slow-moving traffic on busy roadways by highlighting them in orange or red.

But German artist Simon Weckert creating his own personal traffic jams on the service by loading 99 smartphones into a small cart and lugging them down a street.

 

Simulating Traffic

Weckert's "Google Maps Hack" is straightforward. His red, phone-laden cart essentially simulates 99 full-sized passenger vehicles covering the same stretch at the same time, causing a dark red-highlighted traffic jam to follow him around on Google Maps.

The hack also inconveniences other drivers on Google Maps, re-routing them around Weckert's own personal traffic jam, sometimes leaving him and his cart alone on long stretches of roadway.

Changing Cartography

To Weckert, having a host of other apps such as Airbnb, Uber, and even jogging maps rely on Google Maps, causes a shift in power in how we perceive both the physical and virtual world around us.

"Google’s map service has fundamentally changed our understanding of what a map is, how we interact with maps, their technological limitations, and how they look aesthetically," Weckert wrote on his website.

READ MORE: Google Maps ‘hack’ uses 99 smartphones to create virtual traffic jams [9to5Google]

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