Back in my college days, I always use the Google Maps app to know the traffic to my college. Everytime, when I look at the traffic on Google Maps, I always wonder how does Google Maps know there is traffic in the specific area. When time flies, I started to know that the surrounding mobile phones which decide the traffic in the area.
Thanks to an artist named Simon Weckert, he has shown a way on how to create your own fake traffic on Google Maps. All you need is hundreds of smartphones with you. Here’s how he managed to fake the traffic on Google Maps.
Simon easily fools Google Maps traffic by just using 99 smartphones. First of all, he opens Google Maps on these 99 phones and then he put all these phones into a wagon cart. Then he started walking into different streets in Berlin with his wagon cart. I am sure at first you might think is he is crazy, walking along the street with 99 phones.
Each of the smartphones has its own GPS sensor built-in. Theoretically, Google Maps can only predict the traffic by the movement of the smartphone. So when he filled the wagon cart with 99 phones, Google was assuming there is heavy congestion on the street, because all the phones are moving in a very slow pace. Simon even walkthrough through the street where Google Berlin office is located. But still, it still detected congestion in that street. Here’s the video of Simon walking along the street of Berlin with 99 phones in the wagon cart.
In conclusion, this is how you can fake traffic on Google Maps. Maybe you should try the same too in Malaysia and share the result to us.
