Lance Whitney/ZDNETI’ve always had a mixed experience with motion sickness. I don’t suffer from it on a plane or ship, thankfully. But put me in the back seat of a car, and I often get hit by a bad case of it, especially if the ride is twisty and turny. Triggered by mixed signals across your eyes, inner ear, and brain, those feelings of dizziness and queasiness can be extremely uncomfortable. For anyone else who experiences motion sickness, you can turn to your iPhone for help. Also: Installed iOS 18.6 on your iPhone? Change these 11 settings for the best experienceIntroduced with iOS 18 is a helpful option called Vehicle Motion Cues. With this feature turned on, animated dots appear on the edges of the screen to help you better process changes in the movement of the car. Your goal is simply to use and navigate your phone normally. With its built-in accelerometer, your iPhone will sense that you’re traveling in a moving vehicle. When the car turns, the dots move in the opposite direction of the turn. “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,” Apple said when it unveiled the feature in 2024. “With Vehicle Motion Cues, animated dots on the edges of the screen represent changes in vehicle motion to help reduce sensory conflict without interfering with the main content. Using sensors built into iPhone and iPad, Vehicle Motion Cues recognizes when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly.” How to use Vehicle Motion Cues on the iPhoneHere’s how I combat my motion sickness with my iPhone and how you can do the same. You can also use Vehicle Motion Cues on an iPad with iPadOS 18 or higher. More
