A man creates virtual ‘Traffic Jam’ on Google Maps with a Cart and 99 Phones

Recently Google Maps, which saves a lot of our time and lives by telling us the correct directions to reach our destinations, was hacked.

Simon Weckert, who is a Performance artist took 99 used phones in a cart and took them through the streets of Berlin. With this, Google Maps showed that the area was congested, even though it was mostly empty.

The red line, which signifies busy road, congestion, and traffic of Google Maps was visible to users – the app recognised the phones as a ‘spike in traffic’.

The clear motive of the artist was to show it to people that even if the app is very user-friendly and helps them avoid traffic and save time, it can also be misused and be quite misleading if reaches the wrong hands.

After the incident, Simon shared the experience on his website saying, “Googles Maps have fundamentally changed our understanding of what a map is, how we interact with maps, their technological limitations, and how they look aesthetically. In this fashion, Google Maps makes virtual changes to the real city.”

Though according to him it was a fun experience of playing with the app, he pointed out that if the app can be manipulated so easily, certain problems are bound to arise in the future.