Autonomous or self-driving vehicles may come with a negative side-effect that will rekindle memories of long childhood car journeys punctuated by queasiness and emergency roadside stops. A new research study suggests that motion sickness is expected to be more of an issue in self-driving vehicles than in conventional vehicles.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) say that the three main factors contributing to motion sickness (conflict between vestibular and visual inputs, inability to anticipate the direction of motion, and lack of control over the direction of motion) are elevated in self-driving vehicles.
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The study authors, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle, also found that the frequency and severity of motion sickness in such a situation will also be influenced by the activity that the driver would be involved in instead of driving.
The UMTRI report calculates the expected frequency and severity of motion sickness in fully self-driving vehicles based on the expected frequencies of different activities from a recent survey of what individuals would be likely to do in a fully self-driving vehicle – a survey conducted in the US, China, India, Japan, the UK and Australia.
The results indicate that, for example, 6%-10% of American adults riding in fully self-driving vehicles would be expected to often, usually, or always experience some level of motion sickness.
