Steve Crowley

I feel like an idiot but is this how Google maps works out traffic density - by correlating it to number of phone signals? I always thought it was something to do with traffic cameras, but even while typing that I've realised that I've never actually thought about it!

I assume it's speed of phones it assumes to be in cars (perhaps through being on maps google navigation, perhaps magic). I'm just guessing though!

chuckle this is funny. and a dang good warning about us relying too much on technology.

reminds me of the stories that came out of California during the wildfires: phone maps would direct people to streets that were empty...because they were engulfed in flames, hence no cars or phone signals.

AFAIK @samykamkar did this with virtual machines.

Sounds like a great way to do path optimization. Find the shortest route, spoof Geolocation along that route, all cars are diverted and you now have a clear path to your destination.

Wouldn't this look like it was a bus full of people, since all of the phones would report the same location? Hmm .. maybe not, if the precision of the location reporting isn't that high. The 21st century is a weird place to be sometimes.

In a bus people normally don’t set their phones to navigation mode.

In South Park it would probably disrupt society for days upon end