An single red wagon, hand pulled down the middle of a lightly traveled street, is an odd delivery mechanism for an electronic warfare attack. It is only slightly less unusual as a kind of art exhibit. But the wagon's payload, and its artist brush, is the same: 99 secondhand smartphones, all opened to Google Maps. In a simple demonstration, Berlin-based artist Simon Weckert rolled the wagon full of phones through several streets and, in so doing, created virtual traffic jams as Google Maps interpreted the phones as slow-moving cars. Screen captures of the demonstration, paired with video from the street, show the traffic mapper interpreting the wagon phones as first nothing, then as a slowdown, and then in a deep red line painted over the virtual road, as a rush hour-esque standstill.
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