Berlin man tricks Google Maps into showing traffic congestion by wheeling cart with 99 smartphones across roads

Google Maps is arguably one of the most invaluable tools for anyone who lives in a big city to avoid traffic snarls or bottlenecks on roads in real-time.

As invaluable as it may be, Google Maps isn’t flawless, and a man in Berlin managed to prove just that. Artist Simon Weckert recently posted a video of how he managed to create a virtual traffic jam on Google Maps.

For the experiment, Weckert ran Google Maps on a cart loaded with 99 smartphones. He then had someone wheel the car around the streets of Berlin. One of the locations included the area outside the Google office. The stunt might have also re-routed other drivers in the area using Google Maps to 'hilariously' prevent them from avoiding traffic that didn’t exist.

The slow-pace at which the cart moved along with the 99 smartphones were apparently enough to trick Google Maps into thinking there was a high concentration of vehicles in streets which were actually empty. As a result of the experiment, the navigation app turned green streets to red, creating a virtual traffic jam.

It is not entirely clear whether the entire experiment might just be a ruse. While Google has not officially confirmed whether or not such a scenario was possible, a Senior Software Engineer for Google Maps claimed it could be done.