Apple today announced new accessibility features coming to its devices later this year, and one feature in particular that is likely to have widespread appeal among vehicle passengers is Vehicle Motion Cues, which aims to prevent motion sickness when looking at an iPhone or iPad.
According to Apple, 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.
Vehicle Motion Cues are designed to avoid this sensory conflict with the use of visual elements on the display that indicate real-time changes in motion. Apple explains:
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 recognises when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly. The feature can be set to show automatically on iPhone, or can be turned on and off in Control Center.
In addition to Vehicle Motion Cues, Apple is also set to introduce an eye tracking feature that will let users navigate their ‌iPad‌ and iPhone with just their eyes. It will also debut CarPlay voice control and new Music Haptics later this year. The latter uses the Taptic Engine in the iPhone to play taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music, allowing users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music. The new features are expected to arrive as part of iOS 18, which is likely to be released in September.
