Study: Self-driving cars will make a lot of people sick

A recent study conducted by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute predicts that passengers in self-driving cars will be more likely to experience motion sickness than in traditional automobiles.

Specifically, the study estimates that anywhere between 6% and 10% of passengers would experience some level of motion sickness “often, usually, or always,” while as many as 12% would feel moderate or severe motion sickness “at some time.”

The researchers looked at the factors that contribute to motion sickness – “conflict between vestibular and visual inputs, inability to anticipate the direction of motion, and lack of control over the direction of motion” – and estimated how much more likely passengers would be to experience them while traveling in self-driving cars. They concluded that these factors “are elevated in self-driving vehicles.”

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