Cited on HN 3 times, 2023–2025, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN cites it as a playful example of attacking crowd-sourced traffic data and of how automated systems can be fooled.
An art project by Simon Weckert in which 99 smartphones pulled in a handcart create a fake traffic jam on Google Maps. A green street shows as red, which diverts cars to other routes.
“He put 99 smart phones in a wagon with all of them running Google maps in drive mode.” (HN, 2023)
[this video] He put 99 smart phones in a wagon with all of them running Google maps in drive mode. Google interpreted this as a traffic jam, and made other cars avoid the area.
As far as traffic attack vectors go, this is semi-intersting. I like the wagon of smart phones attack[0]. Seems more fun and easy to do. I'll bet you could get all of Waymo's cars to reroute or force them to funnel into one street. THAT would be a cool show. [0] [this video]
Fun traffic attack example using a wagon of phones.
Maybe they were going to use them to hack Google Maps and fake traffic jams! An Artist Used 99 Phones to Fake a Google Maps Traffic Jam: [link] Google Maps Hacks by Simon Weckert [this video] >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 to avoid being stuck in traffic. #googlemapshacks
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