How a man 'hacked' Google maps to show 'virtual traffic jams' with 99 mobile phones and a red cart

A man in Germany "hacked"the Google map site with a red cart filled with 99 smartphones causing a "virtual traffic jam"on the site.

The man, Simon Weckert, an artist, began the "Google Map Hack"project after noticing a traffic jam on a Berlin street where a demonstration was taking place a few years ago although there were no cars on the road.

He later realised it was not the people but a large number of smartphones in one place which the much-used Google maps had picked up.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

In a series of tweets on Twitter, Weckart said, "99 smartphones are transported in a handcart to generate virtual traffic jam in Google Maps. Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route!"

Weckert who focuses his work on the digital world clearly exposed a large chink in the Google map which is used widely around the world.

After his work and the story went viral, a Google spokesman said: "Traffic data in Google Maps is refreshed continuously thanks to information from a variety of sources, including aggregated anonymized data from people who have location services turned on and contributions from the Google Maps community."

"We’ve launched the ability to distinguish between cars and motorcycles in several countries including India, Indonesia and Egypt, though we haven’t quite cracked travelling by wagon. We appreciate seeing creative uses of Google Maps like this as it helps us make maps work better over time," it added.

Weckert used a simple technique to hack into Google's map, he would walk up and down the street with his cart stuffed with phones and after about an hour the Google map would show a red line on the map indicating that heavy traffic had slowed down cars on the road.