Artist Created Traffic In Google Maps Using 99 Phones And Red Wagon

A Berlin-based artist proved to the world that Google, one of the world's prime innovators in anything and everything that could make our lives a tad bit easier, can be tricked.

Simon Weckert's “Google Map Hacks” is fairly simple: the performance and installation art used 99 second hand Smartphones, a red wagon and Weckert's walking ability.

By turning all of the phones' navigation on, Weckert walked through Berlin's concrete jungle and created what he described as a “virtual traffic jam.” In turn, the artist was able to trick Google Maps by making green streets red – a sure-fire sign of traffic congestion when in fact there were hardly enough cars to honk their horns at Weckert who at one point walked in the middle of the street in his video.

For those that use Google Maps to save their lives, green means, well, little to no traffic, while red spell find-another-route-or-else-we'll-be-stuck-here-forever. What Weckert did was proof that these factors have an “impact in the physical world:” Google will redirect drivers to another route to avoid traffic.

“Google's map service has fundamentally changed our understanding of what a map is, how we interact with maps, their technological limitations and how they look aesthetically,” Weckert said in his website.

While Weckert spoke his mind about the impact the Search Engine has on a “real city,” a Google spokesperson, through CNN said that Weckert's art is a “creative” way to use Google Maps and that it would “help us make maps work better overtime.”