Apple's ‘Vehicle Motion Cues’ May Help Your Motion Sickness—But How Does It Work?

How is motion sickness even real? I always believed it was just a direct consequence of having too many snacks on a road trip. After countless car rides with friends feeling nauseous and disoriented, I started to wonder if there was more to it. I turned to the wisdom of science and the personal experiences of many such friends, who were all too familiar with the feeling and keen to explain:

“Yes, it’s a real thing.”

At its core, motion sickness stems from a disconnect between what we see, feel, and what our inner ear (responsible for balance) perceives. Moreover, anticipation of motion plays a major humpty-dumpty role in car sickness, as the mismatch between expected and actual movement can trigger symptoms. When you're in a moving vehicle, your eyes may focus on an unmoving object inside the car, while your body goes through the vehicle's motion. This sensory conflict confuses the brain, leading to that uncomfortable sensation my friends know all too well.

Experts recommend sitting in the front seat and looking straight ahead to align your visual expectations with reality. When these expectations fail to catch up, looking down at the phone can worsen your discomfort—an issue Apple aspires to address with a new iOS feature in their rollout, typically named Vehicle Motion Cues.

Earlier this year, Apple announced Vehicle Motion Cues—a new iOS 18 feature for iPhone and iPad designed to reduce motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles. Since the issue for people is not being able to tell the motion of the vehicle while looking at their phone, Apple displays animated dots on the screen that move with the vehicle. The animated dots appear at the edges of the screen to indicate changes in vehicle motion, stabilizing this “body-brain” conflict without disrupting the main content on your screen.

These dots shift in the direction of your phone's movement and assist your brain in perceiving the “motion” without needing to look out the window. Interestingly, the system uses built-in sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) to detect when the device is in a moving vehicle. Accelerometers measure how fast the vehicle speeds up or slows down, while gyroscopes track how the vehicle's orientation changes. Lastly, the feature can be activated automatically or be toggled on and off through the Control Center. Pretty neat stuff.

For a lot of users, yes, it does. But for a select few motion sickness sufferers like Lauren Mazzo, freelance writer for SELF magazine, the jury is still out. A recent study, for instance, found that dynamic or moving images triggered motion sickness more quickly and severely than static visual input.

“The last thing you want is to add another confusing sensory input that’s not accurate,” Dr. Keshavarz said to Lauren. “Presenting visual cues that aren’t perfectly matching the motion could technically make symptoms worse.”

With that said, this new development is still a welcome addition for many Apple users, demonstrating the company’s longstanding commitment to accessibility. Perhaps it’s just a matter of time and more improvements, until your lunch is saved and properly digested.