Simon Weckert

Artist Creates Virtual Traffic Jam With Wagon Full Of Smart Phones

In the early days of GPS navigation, the major kinks to work out were things like keeping up with construction of new areas and making sure the satellites were tracking everything as accurately as possible. From time to time, people would get some poor instructions and probably trusted them a bit too much.

Most of those bugs have been fixed by now, but there's one little red wagon that has exposed another, bigger issue, and it was towed around by artist Simon Weckert.

Seeking to also draw attention to how much blind trust people put into the systems around them, Weckert basically hacked Google Maps.

Simon Weckert

All he needed was his little red wagon and 99 rented smart phones with the location data and Google Maps turned on.

As he pulled his wagon along, Google Maps turned the streets Weckert was on a heavy red to indicate crushing traffic. The result, ironically, was empty streets as drivers skirted the area. Is that art, or is it evil?

Weckert's clever experiment did catch Google's eye.

Simon Weckert

But they weren't mad about it. A Google rep confirmed to Business Insider that, in fact, it was welcome.

"We've launched the ability to distinguish between cars and motorcycles in several countries including India, Indonesia, and Egypt, though we haven't quite cracked traveling by wagon," the rep said. "We appreciate seeing creative uses of Google Maps like this as it helps us make maps work better over time."

And Google Maps can obviously tell when a bus full of people are using their smart phones as well.

Simon Weckert

While you might expect that a cluster of people should indicate a traffic jam, just like Weckert's wagon, in fact all those people on the bus are traveling at the same speed, along a set route with predictable stops, all things the GPS satellites and system can figure out.

As Weckert pointed out, maps, and particularly Google Maps, have a surprising amount of power.

Simon Weckert

On his blog, Weckert noted that many of the apps we use in our daily lives rely heavily on Google Maps data — food delivery apps, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft, Tinder, and many more wouldn't be possible without Google's data that's always tracking and watching and guiding us.

He's interested in how much power Google's maps give us, and how much they control us. "Do these maps function as dispositive nets that determine the behaviour, opinions and images of living beings, exercising power and controlling knowledge?" he asks.

It's a good question to ask, especially when the map and the data it collects can be manipulated with a wagon load of smart phones.

Simon Weckert

"There is no such thing as neutral data. Data is always collected for a specific purpose, by a combination of people, technology, money, commerce, and government," Weckert told Business Insider.

"Maps have the potential as an instrument of power for some intentions. They substitute political and military power."

h/t: Business Insider