Jaguar Land Rover has revealed plans to roll out anti-car sickness technology in all of its vehicles.

Motion sickness affects more than 70% of people, according to the auto manufacturer. Spencer Salter, wellness technology researcher at Jaguar Land Rover, pointed out that previously “little has been known about the causes and how to mitigate them”.

Reduction techniques

Now, through its pioneering motion sickness research, Jaguar Land Rover claims to have identified techniques to reduce the effects of motion sickness by at least 60%.

The firm has created an algorithm that generates a ‘wellness score’ for each passenger. It has already collected 15,000 miles of motion sickness data and tested the effects caused by performing a task while in transit, such as checking emails.

This has enabled the creation of a baseline driving style for self-driving vehicles to work towards, minimising the need for steering corrections and therefore the risk of motion sickness while passengers work or relax.

Spencer Salter, wellness research engineer, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “As we move towards an autonomous future where occupants will have more time to either work, read or relax on longer journeys, it is important we develop vehicles that can adapt to reduce the effects of motion sickness in a way that is tailored to each passenger.”

Motion sickness is often caused when the eyes observe information that is different from what is sensed by the inner ear, skin or body forces – commonly when reading.

Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘wellness score’ calculates how susceptible individual drivers and passengers are to feeling car sick, using biometric sensors that record physiological signals. Combining this with motion and dynamics data, the vehicle will reliably know when a passenger or driver is becoming motion sick – before they do.

Dr Steve Iley, chief medical officer, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “This cutting-edge research has created a solution that, with its solid scientific foundation, can make travelling enjoyable, regardless of your susceptibility to motion sickness.

“As a parent of young children, who are most susceptible to car sickness, I am particularly excited by the benefits this research can have in making long journeys comfortable and stress-free for families.”

Jaguar or Land Rover vehicles today are already designed to help combat feelings of nausea. The Jaguar E-PACE, for example, has 26 different seat configurations for passengers to find a position that raises the infotainment screen relative to eye level as well as turn on the cooling seat function.