Photo credit: Simon Weckert
Google Maps has evolved over the years to include many new tools, like traffic reports, Simon Weckert shows that these are easy to spoof, and he does so by using a basic wagon lugging 99 smartphones. This simple “hack” enabled him to create virtual traffic jams throughout Berlin. Yes, he even stopped by Google Berlin during his journey, and many times drivers were rerouted due to the red color coding of traffic.
Simon Weckert is actually an artist who wanted to show how dependent humans have become on services like Google Maps. Fortunately, it did catch the attention of the search giant, who will now use this experiment to better its Maps service going forward.
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All of these apps function via interfaces with Google Maps and create new forms of digital capitalism and commodification. Without these maps, car sharing systems, new taxi apps, bike rental systems and online transport agency services such as ‘Uber’ would be unthinkable,” said Weckert.
