Latest news with #motionSickness
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
I drove the world's first anti-sickness CAR - and it's the smoothest ride I've ever experienced
If, like me, you suffer from motion sickness, then you know just how quickly a trip down Britain's winding back roads can turn into a nausea-inducing nightmare. But if you struggle to hold on to your lunch as the car starts to lurch, there may soon be a solution. ClearMotion, a Boston-based startup, claims that its latest generation of cutting-edge suspension can 'eliminate motion sickness' for good. So, with anti-nausea tablets in hand, MailOnline's reporter, Wiliam Hunter, took a trip to their Warwickshire testing facility to try it for himself. Installed in the luxury NIO ET9, ClearMotion's suspension acts like a pair of noise-cancelling headphones for the road. With compact motors tucked away above each wheel and a sophisticated onboard computer, the system can push and pull the wheels to cancel out bumps in the road. In theory, that should mean all the swaying and shaking that normally triggers a bout of motion sickness should be removed. And, after a few hours of putting this system through its paces, the future of driving looks like it's going to be a lot more comfortable. How does it work? Unlike the suspension in almost every other car, the ClearMotion suspension system is 'active'. Normal gas and spring-based systems are passive, which means they simply place a buffer between the wheels and the body of the car to dampen the motion. But, no matter how good a passive system might be, it can never completely negate that motion because the spring can't compress and expand fast enough. Active solutions get around this problem by adding outside power to the suspension system. With ClearMotion, when the wheels start to feel an obstacle, such as a speed bump, the compact motors rapidly pull the wheels up so that this movement isn't transferred up to the passengers. This is what ClearMotion CEO Christian Steinmann calls the 'sky hook' approach; the body stays perfectly level while the wheels pump up and down to follow the contours of the road. Drivers can even tailor their performance on the go, dialling in a stiffer sporty feel or cancelling out as much motion as possible. How does ClearMotion work? ClearMotion uses 'active' suspension. This replaces the traditional springs or airbags found in passive suspension with small, powerful motors. When the system detects a bump, it quickly drives the wheel up or down to absorb the impact. This is called the 'sky hook' approach. The car's body remains flat and level, as if anchored to the sky, while the wheels pump up and down to follow the road. The result is a drive so smooth that the NIO ET9 even has an option called 'Champagne Mode'. As long as you don't exceed about 12mph (20km/h), this allows you to drive over speed bumps with a tower of champagne glasses on the bonnet - in case that was something you were planning on doing. How does it feel? Over the course of the afternoon, we put the NIO ET9 equipped with ClearMotion's suspension to the test on everything from winding back roads to a specially designed vehicle test track. After spending the morning learning about the tech, I was excited to feel just how velvety smooth the ride could be. But as we raced along a B road, I was almost a little disappointed. The ride was certainly exceptionally smooth, but there were still a few rumbles and shakes rather than the maglev-like experience I'd been expecting. But then our host suggested turning the active system off for a moment so I could really feel the difference. Suddenly, we were bumping and lurching and rolling around like a ship on a stormy sea. Lumps and divots I had been blissfully ignorant of suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. Whereas before I had been blithely making notes on my experience, I could now hardly touch pen to page before being jolted into an illegible scribble. Now I realised just how bad this pothole-ridden track really was, and just how good ClearMotion's system had been. With relief, we switched the active system back on, and it was like floating on a cloud by comparison. Looking at the road ahead, I could see other cars lurching and swaying over the contours of the road while ours remained almost perfectly still. I could still feel the movement of the car and the connection to the road, but it was as if the volume had been turned down from a roar to a murmur. Could it be better? Of course, even the best active system can't create the perfect ride if it's just being reactive. Marco Giovanardi, ClearMotion Technical Fellow, told MailOnline: 'It is like a blind man feeling his way down the road. You can be quick to respond, but you're always responding in the moment.' This becomes a problem when the road contains obstacles which are bigger than what the suspension system can absorb. When the car starts going over an obstacle, it doesn't know whether this is a small bump it can quickly move over or the start of a steep bridge it needs to take slowly. That means any active system will still need to make compromises with its range of motion, so the ride isn't as good as it could be How does RoadMotion map the road? The RoadMotion software combines GPS data with information from the suspension to produce a map of the road. Every movement experienced by the wheels is recorded and sent to ClearMotion's central cloud system. As more journeys are recorded, the map gets more and more detailed until it captures every bump and imperfection. When a car drives on the same road, it compares its GPS location and wheel motion to this map in order to work out where it is. RoadMotion can locate a car with an accuracy of 1 cm to help the active suspension plan its response. 'If we had a Donald Duck car with 10-foot suspension, we could just glide over everything and it wouldn't matter, but we only have plus or minus 10 centimetres in most cars,' says Mr Giovanardi. But this is where ClearMotion's technology gets really clever. In addition to their suspension systems, ClearMotion is also preparing to release a piece of software called RoadMotion. RoadMotion collects GPS data and combines this with information coming from the suspension to create a map of the road which captures every bump and imperfection. When you start to drive down that road again, your car feels the motion of the road to work out your location. Mr Giovanardi says that this is like Shazam for the road, but instead of recognising patterns in music, it recognises patterns in potholes. Once a road is fully mapped, RoadMotion is so accurate that it can calculate the car's position within an accuracy of one centimetre, even driving through tunnels without GPS. With that map of the road ahead, the car's suspension system uses AI to plan out its movements so that any motion is reduced to an absolute minimum. Mr Giovanardi says: 'With this proactive control, you can isolate a lot more motion because, by knowing what's coming, you can do the right thing all the time.' ClearMotion predicts that it would take about one week for someone driving to work every day to produce a road map with 90 per cent coverage. Likewise, they estimate that they would only need about six customers to map all 36,600 miles (58,900 km) of roads in Massachusetts. Currently, RoadMotion is only in the prototype stages, so there aren't many UK roads that have been fully mapped. However, one of the few places that has been mapped extensively is the HORIBA MIRA vehicle proving ground. Driving on this maze of slaloms, speed bumps, and vehicles can test everything from their braking distance to how they handle a section of French pavé. But with RoadMotion turned on, I could hardly feel a thing. Swinging around corners, the car remains almost disconcertingly level, feeling more like a rollercoaster than a race car. Even as we accelerated hard enough to pin my head to the seat, there was barely a rumble from the road. But the most impressive moment came as we launched into a set of 'sine-wave' bumps designed to send unwary drivers launching into the air. Hurtling towards the bumps at 50 miles per hour (80 kmph), I braced for impact. Still bracing for the impending impact, I suddenly noticed the obstacles appearing in the rear-view mirror. RoadMotion had neutralised the motion to such an extent that I hadn't noticed a disturbance intended to get most cars airborne at 30 miles per hour (50 kmph). Does it prevent motion sickness? But the big question is not whether ClearMotion feels nice to drive, but rather whether it actually solves motion sickness. Throughout the day, I did everything I could to make myself as nauseous as possible. I sat in the back seat, wrote emails on my phone, read a book, and even closed my eyes as I was driven around and around windy roads. Surprisingly, while that would normally have me reaching for the sick bags, I barely felt anything more than the slightest discomfort. However, I'm still not sure I would feel comfortable spending a long drive working from the back seat as ClearMotion envisions. Despite how much better it was than any car I've ever been in, there was still room for improvement, and CEO Christian Steinmann agrees. 'At the moment we are still in reactive mode,' Mr Steinmann told MailOnline. 'You still have a human in the driver's seat, and we can only react to the demands of the driver.' Mr Steinmann's ultimate vision is that ClearMotion suspension would be used in autonomous vehicles, allowing humans to work or rest in peace while the car makes the ride as smooth as possible. 'As soon as you put the human out of the loop, we know the traffic ahead and so we can calculate acceleration, deceleration and steering manoeuvres - at that moment I can really eliminate motion sickness.' SELF-DRIVING CARS 'SEE' USING LIDAR, CAMERAS AND RADAR Self-driving cars often use a combination of normal two-dimensional cameras and depth-sensing 'LiDAR' units to recognise the world around them. However, others make use of visible light cameras that capture imagery of the roads and streets. They are trained with a wealth of information and vast databases of hundreds of thousands of clips which are processed using artificial intelligence to accurately identify people, signs and hazards. In LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanning - which is used by Waymo - one or more lasers send out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle. These sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information, acting as the 'eyes' of the car. While the units supply depth information, their low resolution makes it hard to detect small, faraway objects without help from a normal camera linked to it in real time. In November last year Apple revealed details of its driverless car system that uses lasers to detect pedestrians and cyclists from a distance. The Apple researchers said they were able to get 'highly encouraging results' in spotting pedestrians and cyclists with just LiDAR data. They also wrote they were able to beat other approaches for detecting three-dimensional objects that use only LiDAR. Other self-driving cars generally rely on a combination of cameras, sensors and lasers. An example is Volvo's self driving cars that rely on around 28 cameras, sensors and lasers. A network of computers process information, which together with GPS, generates a real-time map of moving and stationary objects in the environment. Twelve ultrasonic sensors around the car are used to identify objects close to the vehicle and support autonomous drive at low speeds. A wave radar and camera placed on the windscreen reads traffic signs and the road's curvature and can detect objects on the road such as other road users. Four radars behind the front and rear bumpers also locate objects. Two long-range radars on the bumper are used to detect fast-moving vehicles approaching from far behind, which is useful on motorways. Four cameras - two on the wing mirrors, one on the grille and one on the rear bumper - monitor objects in close proximity to the vehicle and lane markings.
Daily Mail
26-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Travellers reveal little-known smartphone feature that stops travel sickness
Travellers have revealed an under-the-radar hack to avoid getting motion sickness while in the car. Looking at a phone screen while you're in a moving vehicle can quickly make you feel dizzy. The NHS explains: 'Motion sickness is caused by repeated movements when travelling, like going over bumps in a car or moving up and down in a boat, plane or train. 'The inner ear sends different signals to your brain from those your eyes are seeing. These confusing messages cause you to feel unwell.' It recommends looking straight ahead or closing your eyes and breathing slowly to alleviate the effects of motion sickness. But, according to some travellers, some smartphones have a special setting that'll enable you to check your emails without feeling sick. Australian author, Zoe-Foster-Blake, took to Instagram to share a new hack she's found that lets her 'reply to emails in the car for the first time ever without wanting to spew'. She explains that people with the Apple IOS 18 update on their iPhone can actually turn on a special setting called 'Vehicle Motion Cues'. Found in the settings part of the phone, the Vehicle Motion Cues appear as 'animated dots on the edges of the screen that represent how the vehicle is moving without interfering with what you're doing on iPhone.' The sensors can detect when the user is in a moving vehicle. Apple says users need to click on the motion button in the accessibility section of settings. They can select to put on vehicle motion cues. On a Reddit thread, one fan of the feature explains: 'Basically the dots move in the direction of your phone's movement which helps your brain figure out what's happening without looking out the window.' And another Reddit user writes: 'I use it and it genuinely works well and helps me slightly with motion sickness. I love how it detects when you are in a vehicle and only then turns the feature on.' While another person says: 'As someone who suffers from motion sickness, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well this worked.' In a TikTok video, another i Phone user Kaylee Andrew (kayleeandrew18) says that she's now able to get stuff done while on the move. The TikToker explains that she used to not be able to 'be on my phone whatsoever' while in the car. If you're not lucky enough to have the iPhone solution for motion sickness, there are a couple of other methods you can try to combat feelings of dizziness. The NHS recommends sitting in the front of a car or the middle of the boat to reduce motion sickness. It also suggests breaking up long journeys with plenty of time to enjoy fresh air, drink water or take a walk. Ginger is also recommended for sickness and can be taken in the form of a biscuit, tablet or tea.
The Sun
24-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Why mums are sticking criss-cross plasters over their children's belly buttons when heading off on holiday this summer
AN unusual parenting hack is going viral online ahead of the summer holidays. However, experts have broken down whether or not this unique step works. Parents have been placing plasters in a criss-cross shape on their children's belly buttons before travelling this summer. According to them, this DIY trick can help to ward off motion sickness. TikTok mum Victoria (@ called the technique the "first thing" she does on a cruise. And another mom-fluencer Ttsagana (@tsagana24) placed plasters on her children's belly buttons before boarding their camper van. "Here's what I do to prevent motion sickness," she informed her TikTok followers. Instagram user Jasmin (@ revealed that her family's "travel life has completely changed" since learning the hack. "I know, it sounds super crazy, but it totally works for both my children," she said. "They used to be so poorly during longer car rides." However, there is no science to back up this step as a method of curbing motion sickness. Pediatrician Mona (@pedsdoctalk) shared her take on the technique in a TikTok video. I've tried for ages to potty train my 3-year-old, then he watched ONE Ms Rachel's video and started doing it immediately First, she explained that motion sickness happens when the brain gets conflicting messages. The inner ear senses movement when travelling on a vehicle so when your child is focused on something still like a book or tablet, their brain gets confused. This causes a mismatch which can result in nausea, dizziness, and sometimes vomiting. "So unless this band-aid hack can magically rewire the entire sensory system, it's just another myth," Dr. Mona said. However, she added that if it seems to have a placebo effect on your child, then you should continue using it. More parenting hacks IF you want to make your life easier as a first-time mum, here's nine hacks you won't want to miss. 1. Routine Charts Create visual charts for daily routines. Use pictures and stickers to make them engaging for younger children. 2. Meal Planning Plan meals a week in advance to save time and reduce stress. Involve your children in meal prep to teach them cooking skills. 3. Toy Rotation Keep a portion of toys stored away and rotate them periodically. This keeps playtime fresh and exciting without the need for constant new purchases. 4. DIY Cleaning Solutions Make child-safe cleaning solutions using vinegar and baking soda. It's effective and keeps harsh chemicals away from little hands. 5. Time-Out Jar Create a time-out jar filled with calming activities written on slips of paper. When emotions run high, children can pick an activity to help them settle down. 6. Educational Apps Utilise educational apps and websites to make screen time productive. Look for ones that offer interactive learning in subjects your child is interested in. 7. Command Centre Set up a family command centre with a calendar, key hooks, and a bulletin board. It helps keep everyone organised and aware of daily schedules. 8. Emergency Kit Keep a small emergency kit in the car with essentials like snacks, water, first aid supplies, and a change of clothes. It's a lifesaver for unexpected situations. 9. Label Everything Use labels for clothes, school supplies, and lunch boxes. It makes it easier to keep track of belongings, especially in shared spaces like schools. And if your child continues to feel sick while travelling, the health professional recommended other ways to tackle motion sickness. She advised parents to consider the seat position of their child if aged two or older. According to her, you should also keep your car cool and crack a window if possible. Distracting your child by playing I Spy or encouraging them to look out the window can also help nausea. And finally, hold off on heavy meals before travelling and focus on light snacks to settle your child's stomach. Meanwhile, one mum was slammed for her DIY alternative to sand pits. One parenting pro shared the hack she swears by for getting toddlers to sleep in minutes. Plus, a budget-friendly trick will keep your child's bedroom spick and span. And an Alexa hack that is helping parents convert picky eaters and it also aids with bed time. 2
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Why do I get car sick and my boyfriend doesn't? I asked experts
The other day, I tried to read an email on my phone while in the backseat of a moving car. Almost immediately, I was overwhelmed with nausea. Next to me, my boyfriend was happily scrolling through news articles. He tried to show me a headline, but I was too busy staring out the window, breathing deeply and trying not to vomit. This happens basically any time I am in a moving vehicle that I am not personally piloting. It's a little embarrassing. But I'm in good company: approximately one in three people are considered 'highly susceptible to motion sickness'. What exactly is motion sickness, and why do some people experience it so much more than others? We asked experts. Motion sickness is a generic term that encompasses all sorts of travel sickness, including sea sickness, air sickness and car sickness, says Dr John Golding, professor of applied psychology at the University of Westminster, in London. But you don't need to travel to experience its unpleasant symptoms, which can include nausea, vomiting, burping, drowsiness, dizziness, headaches and blurred vision. When the Lumière brothers first screened a motion picture for the public in 1895, some people in the audience started feeling dizzy and sick, says Golding. This is known as 'visually induced motion sickness'. Science isn't entirely sure what causes motion sickness, experts say, but the most widely agreed-upon explanation is the 'sensory conflict theory'. Your body uses visual stimuli, proprioception (the body's ability to perceive itself in space) and the vestibular system (structures inside the inner ear that help you maintain a sense of balance) to sense where your body is and how it is moving. Usually, these three mechanisms are in sync. But when one of them isn't – say, you're reading a static page in the car, but your vestibular system still senses that you're moving – this sensory conflict confuses the brain. 'This neurological tension is what triggers common symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and vomiting,' explains Dr Safia Debar, a general practitioner and executive health physician at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London. In the case of the Lumière brothers' first audiences, their vestibular systems and senses of proprioception told them they were still, but their eyes told them they were moving. Today, many people experience this sort of visually induced motion sickness when using virtual-reality headsets. One of the most common misconceptions about motion sickness is that the strength of the movement determines the severity of the reaction, says Golding. But people don't tend to get motion sickness when they're bouncing up and down on horseback; that is a 'higher frequency' movement, says Golding. Slower-frequency movements, like the rocking of a ship at sea, or the swaying of a bus, are more likely to result in motion sickness. So why can one person read endlessly in a car while even a quick glimpse at a phone turns another person green? A number of factors seem to influence one's proneness to motion sickness, says Dr Behrang Keshavarz, senior scientist at the Kite Research Institute and professor in the department of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. One is age: motion sickness tends to peak in children between the ages of 8 and 12. 'Adults are usually better than kids with motion sickness,' says Keshavarz. But that's not true for everyone, he clarifies. Research suggests people assigned female at birth are more likely to experience motion sickness than those assigned male at birth, says Keshavarz, though no one's quite sure why. Genetics may also play a role, says Golding, adding that studies indicate motion sickness might be 50-70% heritable. Some individuals may also be better at adapting to strange new motions than others, suggests Dr Thomas A Stoffregen, emeritus professor of kinesiology at the University of Minnesota. 'Some people are 'naturally coordinated' and can learn new motor skills quickly,' he says over email. 'Others (like me) are klutzes and take forever to learn new movements.' The latter are more at risk for motion sickness, he argues. Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion One thing is certain: motion sickness is not a sign of weak character. (I would like to see this printed on the little airplane vomit bags I so often end up breathing into during landings.) 'It's not about being delicate or anxious,' says Debar. 'Some people are simply more sensitive to motion.' About half of novice astronauts get space sick during training, Golding adds. 'They're very fit, very highly motivated and not weak-willed,' he says. I nod. Sitting in the back of a Kia Sorento is a lot like going into space, I tell myself. There are two approaches to dealing with motion sickness: behavioral and pharmacological. Behaviorally, a number of easy measures can help. Sit in the front seat of a car when you can, keep your eyes on the horizon, and avoid reading and screens, says Debar. She also notes that ginger has some natural anti-nausea effects. Pleasant music, fresh air, nice smells and a generally pleasant ambiance may be able to distract you, says Keshavarz. He also suggests car passengers copy the movements of the driver. Drivers rarely get motion sickness because they can anticipate the movements of the car and lean into turns, for example. 'If you mimic what the driver does, that helps,' Keshavarz says. Unfortunately, the most effective way to combat motion sickness is also the least pleasant: habituation. In other words, doing the activity over and over again until it doesn't give you motion sickness anymore. 'This is by far the most effective countermeasure,' says Golding, who used it to help desensitize Royal Air Force pilots to air sickness. 'It doesn't have side effects, but it's very time consuming and can be stimulus specific,' he says – meaning that habituating to car sickness won't necessarily help you with sea sickness. Over-the-counter anti-nausea medication can be effective, experts say, but they often cause drowsiness. Transdermal patches such as Scopolamine are also helpful for up to three days, but can take six to 10 hours to take effect. Timing is important for such medications, says Golding. Even pills might take 30 minutes to an hour to take effect. And you must take them before you start to feel sick, because once you start to experience motion sickness, your stomach goes into gastric stasis, meaning it is no longer emptying its contents into the gut. 'That means you might have taken the pill, but it's not going anywhere,' says Golding. Finally, you can always 'vote with your feet', says Golding. 'Avoid situations where you get sick.'
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Apple's Innovative iPhone Feature For Cars Is Coming To The Mac Soon
Vehicle Motion Cues is the name for an accessibility feature for the iPhone to help dissipate motion sickness. This year, it's coming to the Mac, so it could help you work on your laptop as you drive without feeling nauseous. Vehicle Motion Cues coming to the Mac this year. The new feature was revealed by Apple on Tuesday, May 13, as part of its celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (which is Thursday, May 15, this year). The original version was announced in May 2024 and arrived in iOS 18. I simply can't read anything when I'm a passenger in a car without feeling sick almost immediately (and there's a different but obvious reason why I don't do it when I'm driving). This feature was designed to help. Apple explained at the time, 'Research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel, which can prevent some users from comfortably using iPhone or iPad while riding in a moving vehicle,' the company said. The solution was Vehicle Motion Cues which puts animated dots on the screen edges to represent changes in vehicle motion, designed to reduce this sensory conflict. The iPhone recognizes when you're in a moving vehicle and responds automatically. Apple has an animated version of this here. This year, Apple has announced that it will come to the Mac as well — which almost certainly means the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as you're unlikely to be working on an iMac in your car, aren't you? This time, Vehicle Motion Cues will come to Mac, alongside new ways to customize the animated onscreen dots on the iPhone and iPad, as well as the Mac. There were so many accessibility updates announced by Apple (details and analysis of the big hitters can be found here) that the new Vehicle Motion Cues was a long way down the extensive list. This also includes two more motion-oriented changes: support for large text for CarPlay, and updates to Sound Recognition so a driver or passenger with low hearing can be notified of the sound of a crying baby in the car, as well as horns or sirens outside the vehicle. Apple hasn't specified exactly when these updates will land, just that they'll be this year.
