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Google Maps Hacks (2020)
- Jeremy1026 4y agoIt’d be interesting to see what the minimum number of devices would be to affect the map.
- judge2020 4y agoI imagine it’s just the capacity of the street - for a 0.1 mile stretch of a 1-lane road, assuming 15 feet per car (including follow distance), 35 Google maps clients is effectively a full street. If they all have destinations programmed, and are not moving, chances are something is blocking the road.
- pancrufty 4y agoI don’t think you actually need many, it depends on the actual traffic. If it’s empty, I assume 4 phones would be enough. If there are other cars moving much faster than you, then the average would be moved higher.
- askvictor 4y agoProbably as much a question of 'how long for?' A car driving at normal speed would pretty quickly remove the 'traffic jam'
- swah 4y agoI don't think so... that would probably be a motorcycle.
- askvictor 4y agoAnd conversely, sometimes there's a road closure, and Google decides "w00t there's no traffic there at all, I'll send everyone down there!". Seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that, if there's zero cars traveling down a major arterial at peak hour, then that road would obviously be closed.
- CamperBob2 4y agoSame people who like to tell drivers to make left turns in downtown SF during rush hour. My personal theory is that the Google Maps team is staffed by skilled trolls, working at the very top of their game.
- alganet 4y agoI actually want to avoid driving by a person who has 99 phones in a handcart.
- geepytee 4y agoExactly! Feature, not a bug
- Shank 4y agoI know someone did a detailed analysis on this, but you can trivially see that something is wrong by looking closely at the 2nd to last photo [0]. The photo clearly shows multiple phones with the exact same image on the screen, i.e., they are pixel perfect copies. While I don't think the article is implausible, the 2nd to last image is certainly photoshopped. [0]: https://simonweckert.com/img/googlemapshacks/2.JPG https://simonweckert.com/img/googlemapshacks/2.JPG
- infradig 4y agoThey're all open in Maps, of course they have the same location and thus screen image.
- Rebelgecko 4y agoThe EXACT same location and compass orientation? I can't even get 2 phone magnetometers to agree most of the time, let alone a wheelbarrowfull
- ocal5 4y agoWhy not ? They get the quite exact same « wrong » data from GPS, so should be getting quite exact same « wrong » location.
- eCa 4y agoIn my experience, my Iphone 11 is quite often wrong up to 20-30 meters, depending on nearby buildings or other environmental factors. Other phones at the same location at the same time can also differ the same distance, but not necessarily in the same direction. Depending on the use case, within 50 meters of each other may or may not be considered ”the same location”.
- Rebelgecko 4y agoMagnetometers don't use GPS and IME can even be thrown off based on their proximity to metal objects. Things like multipath also won't impact all devices equally if they're adjacent
- dharmab 4y agoI've seen the reverse of this happen on my motorcycle, which can legally lane filter and use HOV lanes in my area. I could paint red lines green on the map in real time.
- hbarka 4y agoGeolocation data on practically everyone, with unique identifiers. If Google had a crime analysis unit, they could easily "data science" the identity of these organized criminals breaking into cars daily in the Bay Area. The cumulative damage to society that these few individuals cause is great. Predatory patterns: https://youtu.be/iWeu2dxHRDg?t=10m59s https://youtu.be/iWeu2dxHRDg?t=10m59s
- saagarjha 4y agoI very much would prefer to not have Google turn into omnipresent law enforcement.
- agilob 4y agoListen, what if they could turn their AI into crime predictive AI and arrest people before they commit a crime?
- largepeepee 4y agoAgreed, they already have too much power and poor oversight. There are already cases of parents who upload pictures of their naked children to doctors getting permanently banned from their products by the invasive AI enforcement team. What has Google done to fix this? Keeping parents permanently banned to avoid litigation.
- is_true 4y agoProbably they are selling the data to Palantir or some israeli "defense" company
- antman 4y agoIt would improve the overall crime picture in the bay area. Also those who post negative photos of broken cars with comments about law enforcement quality could be found and contacted for additional details. An arguably more cost effective approach towards improving law enforcement image. The opportunities are limitless actually.
- alwayslikethis 4y agoI wonder if there could be a feasible business opportunity here. Basically, launch a service to access "express routes", which are really just normal roads clogged up by people spoofing GPS on Google Maps, enabling faster travel for those subscribed to the service since they get the actual clean data. Obviously this won't work in the long term, but in the mean time you might be able to divert some users off Google Maps to an alternative you're trying to market.
- aaron695 4y ago[dead]
- pxeger1 4y agoI thought this was going to be the story about changing the phone number of the US secret service on Google Maps to an attacker-controlled one, and thereby intercepting loads of phone calls
- ClapperHeid 4y agoFor anyone expecting the clickbait headline to lead to an article containing some useful undocumented Google Maps tricks, let me save you the time. This is just that boring old story about a bloke wheeling a handcart full of mobile phones around to fool Google Maps into thinking there was a traffic jam. It's not even a single "hack" never mind plural "hacks"
- emptybits 4y agoOP here. I submitted this with what I felt was a good headline and it lived with this for a while (less than an hour, I reckon): "99 phones in handcart make Google Maps traffic jam, turn green street red (2020)" Then someone changed it to the IMO vague and less informative: "Google Maps Hacks (2020)"
- mcqueenjordan 4y agoIt's just the rules: "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." The original title (on the page linked) is "Google Maps Hacks".
- bambax 4y agoTitle moderation is the one thing that really irks me on HN. I really wish it would go away. The main problem is that there's no reference to the original title, which is usually much more informative. I've been complaining about it for about ten years now (!), to no avail. So yes the shruggie's in order... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Namari 4y agoI didn't even know there was title moderators ... why does it even exist! Are they suggesting a new title or forcing their title over yours? (which I found unacceptable if it's the case)
- bambax 4y agoThey just write a new title and it erases the previous one. The idea is to prevent "clickbait" titles. In practice it mostly destroys information. It would be kind of acceptable if it was done immediately after posting, or if there was some kind of time limit. But it can happen at anytime, and sometimes links that have been upvoted for half a day suddenly change titles, which is infuriating.