Google Maps has saved you time when you travel by car. By using the GPS data of thousands of connected users, it is able to determine the best path on the way to work. The problem is that it has also ruined the tranquility that some neighborhoods and streets enjoyed. Hence, some seek methods to “ha-ck” the system and restore peace among other things.
“Social Driving”
When Waze hit the market its concept of “social driving” completely changed the way you drove around the city. Thanks to the shared use of the GPS data of its users , its algorithms were able to give directions to other users to take them along the path they considered most optimal.
That is, if they detected many users moving along a specific street or avenue, it would provide an alternative that, even if it was greater in distance, would allow the user to reach their destination faster. And it is something that works, I remember a trip from the center of Paris to the airport where thanks to this option I was able to arrive on time so as not to miss the flight.
Therefore, being such an interesting function, in 2013 Google bought the company and those advantages were added to Google Maps. Since then, the company’s map service also provides alternative routes and indicates the estimated time as one or the other is used, which, together with other technologies, has allowed Google to create really powerful geolocation tools.
Thanks to them, many other services have been able to see the light, such as car sharing, Taxi applications and an endless number of apps that we have all used or seen at some time. The problem is to what extent this may or may not affect cities and their users in a negative way. These are questions with complicated answers, but they also help someone think about how to ha-ck these systems.
This is how Google Maps is ha-cked, with 99 phones
Sometimes, the easiest way to “ha-ck” a system is to use ingenuity. That is what Simon Weckert and his 99 mobile phones wanted to show inside a hand cart.
As you can see in the video, these phones are connected to the internet and send the data they collect via GPS. Google that does not understand anything other than data processes them and determines that it is not advisable to send to any of its users. What’s more, if they had to take it there, it will give them an alert signal to keep in mind that there is a traffic jam, although it really isn’t.
Undoubtedly, the way to play with the services is striking and also serves to ask to what extent we are or are dependent on this type of technologies. Advances that not only affect Google Maps, as we said, many other platforms make use of that data to provide service to users. Although Simon also wonders, to what extent beyond the traffic and route recommendations could we use that data we provide when we have our phone with the GPS signal connected.