Google Maps Hacks • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#21

Post by asutekku » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

unfundiert wrote: post #9

I'm stunned how fast Google Maps detects traffic jams. I assume all those smartphones are running car navigation and as traffic detection works by trusting the clients I fear there's no chance to avoid this kind of exploit. Nevertheless it would be interesting to know what's the ratio of correct / malicious clients to fool the system. That migt highly depend on whether Google implemented any detection of faulty clien…

Google maps runs also a lot of the time on background so no active navigation is required. I wonder if the introduction of background location activity notifications in iOS 13 decreased the amount of traffic data gathered from iPhone users.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#22

Post by onionisafruit » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

nudgeee wrote: post #14

I used to work for a mapping & navigation company that offered a traffic API service. It worked by using anonymized cell phone data to predict traffic patterns. I once heard a story that during peak hour, every five minutes or so the jams on a highway would magically disappear then reappear. After some head scratching, turns out there is a train track inbetween the lanes of the highway full of high speed commuters th…

How did you fix that? I’ve been wondering how google and the others differentiate between cars on the free vs express lanes.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#23

Post by netsharc » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

An interesting "red but no traffic" phenomenon is in Iceland, with roads which are next to scenery viewing points. The roads are mostly empty in this country, but everyone must've slowed down when they saw the breathtaking scenery, and would pull into the viewing point's parking spot to stop and take pictures. On Google Maps these areas were marked red.

On another navigation related topic; I was using Waze in a high-traffic city, where even the alternate routes have a lot of traffic. I was thinking, it surely would be possible for Waze to look back along my route and calculate which route would have been better for me.

E.g. if I drove from A via B, C, D, E towards Z, and there was an alternate route A-B-F-G-E-Z, and the route branches out at B (you can either take path B-C-D-E or path B-F-G-E), the app could find a car that was near me at point B, and went to F later on. It would then know the time I would have needed to drive from B to F. This ghost car doesn't need to go all the way to E, if it turned off at F, the app could find another car, one which at that point was at point F and later on drove to G (or better, E), and then see how much time they took. And so on for each segment of my alternate route...

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#24

Post by nannal » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

nateburke wrote: post #20

I am wondering what the minimal monthly data plan cost would be to have this working continuously on your street. In a suburb, surely 20 phones would be enough, no? At $30/ month maybe somewhere between 500 and 600 per month?

You don't need lots of cell phone plans, just one with a wifi hotspot.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#25

Post by ody4242 » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:37 PM UTC

WilTimSon wrote: post #6

Wow, I never actually stopped to think about the way Google determines traffic but it seems so obvious now. This is a very simple but cool trick, I'd expect to see something like this in an action movie where people need to reroute an important car to a particular street. Anyone have any idea how often this data is updated? So if the guy runs through a street with a cart and it turns red, when will it show up as clea…

I guess an important piece (conveniently left out of this story) is that it does not work if there are other cars on the road, as these cars quickly invalidate the data coming from the slow cart.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#26

Post by sixothree » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:37 PM UTC

onionisafruit wrote: post #22

nudgeee wrote: post #14

I used to work for a mapping & navigation company that offered a traffic API service. It worked by using anonymized cell phone data to predict traffic patterns. I once heard a story that during peak hour, every five minutes or so the jams on a highway would magically disappear then reappear. After some head scratching, turns out there is a train track inbetween the lanes of the highway full of high speed commuters th…

How did you fix that? I’ve been wondering how google and the others differentiate between cars on the free vs express lanes.

The device itself should be able to discern the mode of transportation, no?

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#27

Post by onionisafruit » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:39 PM UTC

oxfordmale wrote: post #16

I wonder if there are other non-ethical commercial purposes for this. For example, could shops use it to inflate their footfall and make them look busier than they are ? Can you think of any other areas where this hack could be used for non-ethical purposes ?

Causing rush hour commuters to take a less optimum route depriving them of time at home and causing more pollution from car emissions is unethical.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#28

Post by fastball » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

sixothree wrote: post #26

onionisafruit wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you fix that? I’ve been wondering how google and the others differentiate between cars on the free vs express lanes.

The device itself should be able to discern the mode of transportation, no?

Pretty easy to train some ML network to differentiate between transport modes, assuming the device has a accelerometer / gyroscope / whatever.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#29

Post by eli » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

nannal wrote: post #24

nateburke wrote: post #20

I am wondering what the minimal monthly data plan cost would be to have this working continuously on your street. In a suburb, surely 20 phones would be enough, no? At $30/ month maybe somewhere between 500 and 600 per month?

You don't need lots of cell phone plans, just one with a wifi hotspot.

Though that assumes they haven’t implemented even trivial filtering of bogus data.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#30

Post by speedgoose » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 2:47 PM UTC

I wonder whether Google Maps takes into account the various ways of transportation, such as bicycles, public transports, or electric cars driving on the bus lines.