When I was a child, whenever my family and I traveled on a DTC bus in Delhi, I would always vomit. As far back as I can remember, not a single trip went by without me feeling uncomfortable. To this day, I still feel dizzy and nauseous when I take a taxi from the airport to the hotel or travel by bus from one city to another, and this discomfort only grows when I visit mountainous areas. However, as a seasoned traveler now, I prepare well in advance: I keep ginger candy and cold drinks with me, sit facing forward, change position often, sit near a window, think positively, and avoid reading a book or looking at my phone. However, I can’t escape the thought or feeling of motion sickness, and I inevitably end up checking my phone when I need to navigate or read a WhatsApp message.
Since I’m still trying to figure out the best ways to deal with motion sickness, I recently found a hidden feature on my iPhone Air (in fact, it’s available on any iPhone running iOS 18 or higher). It’s called a vehicle motion signal, and its purpose is to help reduce motion sickness when you’re in a moving car or bus. This feature can be especially useful if you’re someone like me who suffers from motion sickness and immediately starts feeling nauseous. I decided to give it a try, and here’s what Car Traffic Signals does.
What is motion sickness and why does it happen?
Motion sickness is very common, with approximately one-third of people suffering from it, and no one knows exactly what causes it. One common theory suggests that motion sickness results from poor perception of motion. Others say it occurs when there is a mismatch between what your eyes see and what your inner ear feels, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sweating and paleness. In a moving car or bus, you are more likely to feel them, making the unpleasant movements worse when you start to feel symptoms. For some people, the disease begins to develop within a few minutes of getting into a car; Others develop a little more slowly.
Much depends on the flight conditions, which can contribute to motion sickness. In summer, the risk of car sickness is higher. Air conditioning and poor ventilation may aggravate motion sickness in sensitive passengers. Unpleasant odors, such as traffic fumes, smoke, or hot materials, also increase nausea, especially during the summer. This happens because an area of the brain called the posterior region causes nausea and excess saliva as a protective response to certain odors and toxins. Traffic jams can also cause motion sickness.
To reduce motion sickness, sit as forward as possible (ideally near the driver), and avoid screens and reading devices. Closing your eyes or sleeping can also help, and reclining your seat reduces destabilization.
Vehicle traffic signals are designed for use in a moving car or bus and are intended primarily for forward-facing passengers. It is ineffective if you are on a reverse-bound train. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
How does Apple’s motion sickness feature work?
Apple offers a unique solution to motion sickness, and if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can try it right away, making it accessible to everyone. However, it is an accessibility feature and you have to dig deep into the settings to enable it. The Car Motion Cues feature displays tiny moving dots on your iPhone that mimic the motion of your car, helping your brain align visual and inner ear signals to reduce or even eliminate motion sickness. Using the built-in accelerometer, your iPhone senses when you’re traveling in a moving car. So, the car is moving, and the points are moving in the opposite direction of the rotation.
“Research shows that motion sickness is typically caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel, which may prevent some users from comfortably using an iPhone or iPad while riding a moving vehicle,” Apple said when it unveiled the feature in 2024.
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Users can turn this feature on or off in their device settings, or set it to activate automatically when it detects they are in a moving vehicle.
How to enable Visual Motion Cues on your iPhone and iPad
* Open Settings.
*Select accessibility.
*Select movement.
*Identify visual motion cues.
*You’ll notice there are two switches: one to turn on the feature, and one to display it only when your iPhone detects it’s in a moving vehicle.
You can also add vehicle movement signals to the Control Center, where you can access them more quickly. Simply swipe down from the top right of your iPhone to open Control Center. Tap the plus icon at the top right, then select Add Control.
Did Apple’s motion sickness feature work as promised?
As I mentioned before, I’ve suffered from motion sickness my whole life, and could barely read a book or look at my phone in the car for years. Initially, when I started using Apple’s motion sickness feature, I wasn’t convinced. After about 15 minutes in a moving car on my way to the airport, the feature felt ineffective, and nausea began to set in. However, I paused, opened my Kindle app on my iPhone Air, and started reading a book. I spent 20 minutes reading, finished an entire chapter, and was fine.
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Sure, for a few seconds, the array of moving dots on the content you’re watching may seem disturbing, but subconsciously, you start focusing on what you’re reading or watching, with the dots fading into the background. It’s like the crease in the middle of a foldable phone’s screen: you notice it, but it never bothers you.
Moving dots serve a purpose. When the device senses changes in the vehicle’s motion, the dots trick your brain into thinking everything is stable, preventing the sensation that makes you vomit.
However, I still feel that Apple’s motion sickness feature may not work 100 percent of the time. It may work for some people but not for others, simply because everyone has a different level of motion sickness. I don’t know if I fall on the moderate or severe end of the spectrum, but for me, it worked. I’m still getting used to the car’s traffic signals and will continue to use them. I see a lot of potential in features like vehicle traffic signals, which are designed to address an issue that affects more people than you might think.
(tags for translation) Apple’s motion sickness feature
