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Reminds me of the time someone blocked a road on Google maps by bringing a bunch of phones and staying still (or something along these lines).
by throwthat1 3y ago
Reminds me of the time someone blocked a road on Google maps by bringing a bunch of phones and staying still (or something along these lines).
- prox 3y agoThat’s hilarious, so Google interpreted it as a high traffic area?
- agilob 3y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/berlin-artist-uses-99-phones-trick-google-maps-traffic-jam-alert https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/berlin-ar...
- data-ottawa 3y agoHe filled a wagon with 99 phones and walked around so Google would think there was a traffic jam. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/a-man-walked-down-a-street-with-99-phones-in-a-wagon-google-maps-thought-it-was-a-traffic-jam/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/a-man-walke...
- mabbo 3y agohttps://youtu.be/k5eL_al_m7Q https://youtu.be/k5eL_al_m7Q 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.
- jacquesm 3y agoOh that's totally priceless. I definitely have some use for this :) Invisible-Roadblocks-as-a-Service courtesy of Google.
- swader999 3y agoThere's a unicorn in there somehow.
- reaperducer 3y agoThere's a unicorn in there somehow. Absolutely. Rich enclaves paying you to drive a bucket of cell phones around the neighborhood slowly in an electric golf cart. Or simpler: The rich enclaves pay you to supply their existing private security cars/carts with buckets of charged phones to drive slowly around their existing routes.
- mabbo 3y agoI feel like there's a great movie plot point you could write where the bank robbers use this trick to clear traffic out of their way during the escape.
- throwthat1 3y agoI wonder what percentage of cars use google maps to navigate at any one point though
- dang 3y agoDiscussed at the time: Google Maps Hacks - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22216821 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22216821 - Feb 2020 (382 comments)
- clarkdale 3y agoA Berlin artist used 99 phones on a bicycle to trick Google into showing a traffic jam.
- wishfish 3y agoDuring the solar eclipse of 2017, I drove to a small town in eastern Nebraska. The town had a 10k race that day. There were about 3 cars, including mine, on this stretch of road. Stop-and-going inbetween the runners. While my wife drove, I watched Google Maps. It accurately put a short red line on our part of the road. Amused me though that it only took 3 cars to accomplish that.
- davely 3y agoHah! I have a 2017 eclipse story related to this, too! A few days after the eclipse, we were driving through Custer State Park in South Dakota. There were relatively few cars on the road but Google Maps would inexplicably show these very short red traffic jams. We quickly realized that we could anticipate upcoming bison sightings as people slowed down to take pictures of them walking (or sleeping) on the side of the road.
- wishfish 3y agoThat's kinda awesome. I love the idea of bison jams. And using it as a predictor of bison sightings.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]