This Hidden iOS 18 Feature Could Save Your Vacation Trip
I grew up getting motion sick in cars and I’m pretty sure I’ve passed that penchant on to my kids. I have vivid memories of my youngest throwing up on a laptop. I winched myself to a platform between the front seats so both kids could watch videos while we took a long road trip.
Although technology has improved and we now watch videos and read emails, text messages and social media on our portable smartphones, the nausea has not gone away. That’s because nothing has changed physiologically.
Scientists explain that motion sickness can occur when what you’re looking at doesn’t match the movement your body is feeling. It’s our vestibular system (the inner ear), and when that motion-sensitive biology disconnects from the data coming in through our eyes, some of us get very sick. ππ»ββοΈ
This is the kind of life-changing movie that I now think should get its own billboard in Times Square.
That’s why I can’t work in a moving car. The stops, starts, turns, and sharp turns all register as movement in my ear as I try to stare at an unmoving laptop or iPhone screen. When we take a road trip during the holidays, I’m usually the one driving so I don’t have to worry about how I’ll navigate work or get carsick.
My 26 year old, who came with us to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving, complained about not being able to get their work done while we were on the road. βI’m getting sick,β they reminded me.
I was beginning to agree until I remembered a little-discussed update to iOS 18 (and iPadOS 18): Vehicle Motion Cues. Released without fanfare or even a mention that I can remember at WWDC 2024 last June, this is the kind of life-changing feature that I now think should get its own billboard in Times Square.
Although hidden under Accessibility Features, Vehicle Motion Cues is actually for anyone who suffers from motion sickness in moving vehicles. Enable the feature (you can enable it or set it to start automatically when the phone detects that you are in a moving vehicle).
When enabled, Vehicle Motion Cues adds eight small black dots around the edge of the screen. These dots subtly move with the movement of the car, while the underlying display image remains unchanged. This can help counteract the discontinuity of the stationary screen and the movement of the car being picked up by your inner ear.
It is impossible to screen the dots. They disappear from the final screenshot, which leads me to believe that Apple is doing something special here to separate the signals from the activity on the screen below. I’ve reached out to Apple for comment and will update this with its response.
While eight almost imperceptibly moving dots may seem like too simple a solution to a complex problem, the science here is solid. A 2024 ScienceDirect reportβMotion Sickness Countermeasures for Autonomous Driving: Trends and Future Directions,β notes that βone of the main factors behind (motion sickness), as accepted in the literature, is the visual-vestibular incongruence caused by the reduced visibility of the surroundings of the vehicle environment when passengers are engaged in non-driving tasks (or simply choose not to look outside). Providing passengers with visual cues that anticipate the car’s future movement appears to be a reliable strategy to prevent MS.”
Although I added the bold, it’s clear that most research on this topic agrees that visual cues are one of the most powerful motion sickness countermeasures available.
And my practical experience agrees.
Leading up to our eight-hour drive, I reminded my kids of the feature, showed them how to find it (they were unimpressed by the seemingly motionless dots β but of course we weren’t in a car yet) and asked or they might try. They indicated yes, which was encouraging.
During the long drive, which was full of nervous driving through heavy rain showers, I forgot the iOS 18 function.
Hours later, as I got out of the car, relieved to be at my final destination and, yes, feeling a little sick myself, I remembered the Vehicle Motion Cues and asked my youngest if they had tried it out.
“Oh yes, I did. I read and responded to emails and felt fine. I think it worked.”
There you have it. No motion sickness, no nausea, and no vomiting in my car.
If you have a long trip planned and are a passenger or you have passengers, especially children, on iPads, you might as well set Vehicle Motion Cues before sliding them into the car seat.
Happy Holidays.