Motion sickness is a common complaint that is thought to affect as many as 70% of people at one time or another.
The sick feeling is caused when the eyes observe information that is different from that experienced by the inner ear.
It is more common in passengers than drivers and can also be brought on when engaged in a task such as reading a book or using a tablet – clearly not activities that the driver should be engaged in.
It could be an increasingly important issue in driverless cars where everyone is a passenger, however.
Last month, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk suggested that how we spend our journey times will change a lot in the future.
‘When things do become full self-driving, what are people going to do in the car?’ he said.
‘Well, I guess they’re probably gonna do productivity and entertainment of some kind. You know, watch movies, play games, and do work.’
Now, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing software that aims to drastically reduce incidence of motion sickness.
During the first phase of the development, researchers designed a complex algorithm to create an individual ‘wellness score’ for each passenger.
Software identifies factors that can trigger motion sickness
This records the settings and dynamics at which they feel at their best and the factors that are likely to trigger motion or travel sickness.
The algorithm is based on 15,000 miles of motion sickness data and uses biometric sensors to read physiological signals from the passengers.
JLR claims that the system will be able to ‘know when a passenger or driver is becoming motion sick before they do’.
The wellness scores are then combined with dynamics and motion data to automatically adjust cabin settings such as seating configurations, temperature controls and the eyeline with any infotainment screen.
It also feeds into how the car actually drives, making relevant adjustments to things such as speed and acceleration, cornering, braking and positioning within lanes.
These self-drive dynamics are based on 20,000 real and virtual test miles.
Advanced machine learning also means that individual vehicles can optimise driving performance based on data gathered by every member and every mile driven by the whole autonomous fleet.
JLR’s chief medical officer Dr Steve Iley said: ‘Solving the problem of motion sickness in driverless cars is the key to unlocking the huge potential of this technology for passengers, who will be able to use the travelling time for reading, working or relaxing.’
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