A queasy stomach is one of the fastest ways to turn a fun road trip into a miserable trek. If you’ve ever experienced motion sickness, also known as car sickness, you’re all too familiar with the overwhelming discomfort of dizziness, headaches, nausea, sweating, and even vomiting commonly associated with the condition. However, your time of feeling sick in the passenger seat while scrolling your iPhone or iPad may soon come to an end, thanks to the newly announced “Vehicle Motion Cues” technology.

What Causes Motion Sickness?

If you suffer from motion sickness, you aren’t alone. Car sickness is a common occurrence, impacting about 25% of the population in a vehicle like a car, bus, plane, or boat, or even while playing video games or virtual reality (VR). Despite misconceptions, motion sickness is not a psychological ailment or caused directly by any emotional states or physical conditions – though they may worsen symptoms.

What causes motion sickness is that the parts of your body that receive and process motion signals from outside sources are conflicting. That means your eyes, muscles, joints, and especially your inner ear aren’t in line with what is happening around you.

For example, when you’re in a car, your eyes can see that you’re in a moving vehicle, but the rest of your body feels that you are sitting still. The sensory conflict can cause disorientation, triggering the uncomfortable motion sickness symptoms. Passengers with motion sickness find it difficult to read books, emails, or texts on devices without getting sick.

Studies show that children between the ages of 2 and 12 are more susceptible to the ailment. Additional risk factors for car sickness are:

• Family history
• Inner ear infections or disorders
• Menstrual cycles
• Severe headaches or migraines
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Pregnancy

Revolutionizing Passenger Comfort

Although most acute symptoms don’t tend to leave lasting effects, they can make a trip miserable for the sufferer. Thankfully, Apple may have a solution for car sickness.

During the research and development stage of their rumored “Apple Car,” Apple discovered that their vehicle may not be as human-centric and user-friendly as they would like without a few technological advancements. They needed to quickly resolve the issue of motion sickness in autonomous cars using virtual projections. After consulting published leading research, they created “Vehicle Motion Cues” to prevent, reduce, or even eliminate car sickness symptoms of car passengers using Apple devices during their ride.

Motion sickness affects a significant portion of the population. By introducing Vehicle Motion Cues, Apple can potentially revolutionize travel for car sickness sufferers, friends, and family, offering hope for enjoyable travel memories. This technology can open pathways to exploration, improving the quality of life for those who couldn’t previously enjoy the experience of long road trips. Vehicle Motion Cues technology is another installment of innovative Apple technology, solidifying its commitment to creating products for everyone.

Understanding Vehicle Motion Cues Technology

The new Vehicle Motion Cues technology combines Apple’s powerful technology with artificial intelligence (AI). The new tech depends on sensors installed in the iPad or iPhone to capture the vehicle’s movement, like accelerometers and gyroscopes. Vehicle Motion Cues overlay animated dots around the edges of the screen of the Apple device while the vehicle moves. When the car turns, brakes, or accelerates, the dots will move in the opposite direction of the vehicle’s movement.

By using the floating dots, passengers can still use the device as normal without any visual obstructions. However, the dots give the brain visual cues, allowing it to process and synchronize with real-life movement more accurately. This proactive measure may be enough information to trick the brain, alleviating or avoiding car sickness symptoms altogether.

The new settings can be set for automatic detection, so they activate when the user is in a vehicle, or they can be manually turned on when the user gets in the vehicle using Apple’s control center overlay.

Integration into Modern Vehicles

If your vehicle make and model supports Apple CarPlay, you can access all of the features on your iPhone, including Vehicle Motion Cues, without taking your hands off the wheel.

Your phone may be able to connect wirelessly or through a USB cable. Once connected, you can use the infotainment system on your car just like you would normally to control your phone. Another upgraded feature is a larger, easier-to-view menu with Apple CarPlay, making the usage of Apple iPhones and iPads a more seamless experience both in and out of the car. The user-friendly design allows you to focus on the road ahead.

Vehicle Motion Cues are just one of the suite of new accessibility features expected to be released later in 2024. According to the most recent announcement in May of 2024, the accessibility upgrades don’t stop at motion sickness prevention. Other new Apple accessibility features include:

Voice Control

The new Voice Control feature maximizes Siri technology, allowing drivers and passengers alike to use natural language to perform various functions without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel. This upgrade improves road safety, convenience, and the driving experience.

Color Filters

Users will now be able to adjust the color settings as well as the size and boldness of the text font used on the CarPlay display, an advancement that will be particularly useful for drivers with color blindness or users with other vision considerations.

Sound Recognition

Users with hearing impairments may find the latest Sound Recognition features helpful. If they activate the feature, they will receive a notification of nearby car horns or emergency sirens, alerting them to potential safety hazards.

Eye Tracking

The iOS and iPadOS will also feature eye-tracking technology. This feature is especially useful for differently abled users who may have physical or verbal considerations when controlling their iPad or iPhone with their eyes.

Music Haptics

The Music Haptics feature is a breakthrough technology for users who are hard of hearing or deaf. The iPhone’s Taptic Engine transmits taps, vibrations, and audio textures, allowing users to experience music.

Vocal Shortcuts

Designed for users whose speech has been impacted by progressive conditions, Apple users will now be able to perform tasks by assigning custom sounds. Siri technology will be able to identify these custom utterances to carry out complex tasks.

Listen for Atypical Speech

Another feature along the same lines as the Vocal Shortcuts is the “Listen for Atypical Speech” feature, which uses machine learning programmed into the device to learn speech recognition for a wider range of speech patterns.

Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues vs. the Competition

There’s no doubt that Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues can be a potential game changer to overall passenger comfort based on its effectiveness in staving off car sickness. Not only will it be an outlet for passengers to check their messages or read a book during longer trips, but for those passengers especially prone to motion sickness, it could be an alternative solution to some of the other car sickness cures.

Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t announced a release date, but experts believe that based on historical Apple trends, the features will likely come with the next iOS update, the iOS 18 – which could potentially be released as soon as September but is still in testing.

Common Motion Sickness Cures

In the meantime, if you are planning a road trip and are susceptible to getting sick in the car, here are a few traditional remedies to combat motion sickness:

• Avoid triggering situations
• Swap for the driver’s seat or the front passenger seat
• Change your position (i.e., lay down)
• Face the direction the vehicle is traveling
• Lean your head back into the headrest
• Focus on a stationary point on the horizon
• Stay hydrated with water or carbonated drinks (i.e., seltzer or ginger ale)
• Avoid alcohol or caffeine
• Eat small amounts of food frequently (i.e., saltines)
• Take breaks to walk around
• Get fresh air (i.e., roll down the windows, turn the vents your direction, or use a handheld fan)
• Avoid heavy, greasy, acidic food
• Distract yourself (i.e., listen to music, start a conversation, or take naps)
• Eat flavored lozenges (i.e., ginger candies, licorice root, or peppermint)
• Over-the-counter medications like Dramamine
• Stimulate pressure points (i.e., acupressure bands or “Sea Bands”)
• Aromatherapy (i.e. pure peppermint essential oils)
• Biofeedback therapy

Motion Sickness Glasses

Like Apple’s new technology, motion sickness relief glasses or goggles provide a noninvasive, drug-free tool to help provide relief. The theory behind the glasses is similar to Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues: By providing a point for the brain to focus on, it stabilizes the brain’s perception of the surroundings.

Extended Warranties and Advanced Vehicle Technologies

Extended car warranties, like the auto protection plans from Endurance Warranty, provide a financial safety net to help manage expensive car repair costs associated with advanced vehicle technology, like Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues and the latest accessibility features.

When you buy a brand-new car, you’re protected by a comprehensive bumper-to-bumper warranty. Unfortunately, once the manufacturer’s warranty expires, you’re left paying out-of-pocket for every repair. Extended warranties pick up where the factory warranty leaves off, providing financial protection against mechanical breakdowns and sophisticated system failures.

Comprehensive extended warranty plans can be customized to include the parts you want covered, so you have control over the cost. Therefore, you can decide if you want your advanced technology, like sensors and AI systems, protected in case something breaks or just the major parts, like the engine, transmission, and drivetrain. Plus, with flexible payment plans, they’re surprisingly budget-friendly.

With Endurance vehicle service contracts, you also have the added benefit of choosing your service provider. Unlike other extended car warranty companies, you aren’t limited to a car dealership or a network. As a direct provider of our plans, we’ve cut out the middleman, and we are happy to work with any ASE Certified mechanic, repair shop, or dealership you feel comfortable with when it’s for vehicle repairs.

Not only do you have protection against potentially substantial repair costs, but you’ll also have peace of mind that you’re taken care of as soon as disaster strikes. Each of our plans comes with a host of additional benefits to get you back on the road ASAP. With perks like 24/7 roadside assistance and towing, access to the mobile app, trip interruption coverage, and rental car reimbursement, you can rest easy that you won’t be stranded on the side of the road.

Endurance Warranty Plans Protect Your Advanced Vehicle Technologies

Apple is actively catering to consumers’ diverse needs with forward-thinking innovation that makes technology more accessible to everyone. Now that it has unveiled the latest in its human-centric technologies, we can expect to see it roll out to many makes and models through the seamless integration of CarPlay.

Keep your vehicle and your favorite tech running smoothly with an auto protection plan from Garantía Endurance. Call a knowledgeable plan advisor at (800) 253-8203 a request your FREE quote. You can also skip the call and tienda en linea para ver su precio.