2023-04-27 06:47:36
We too often underestimate the importance of our balance functions. And yet, if one detail disturbs them, it’s either a fall or… motion sickness! Human beings have reluctantly discovered the inconveniences of “kinetosis” as they have multiplied their means of transport.
Where do you think that 25 to 30% of the population are regularly subject to it – a figure that might be underestimated, as this phenomenon is poorly understood: it is often summarized in symptoms of malaise (nausea, sweating, pallor, hypothermia, headaches, vomiting) while it can also manifest itself under milder forms such as drowsiness, apathy or a decrease in cognitive abilities. 60 to 70% of travelers would experience it at least once in their life.
It is on board cars that the costs are most frequently incurred. The passengers are there more sensitive than the driver par lack of anticipation of trajectories. The conflicts between the information brought by our different senses disturbing our balance and the difficulties in adjusting our posture to adapt to it are the two main theories to explain it in a general way.
One would have thought that, for more than a century that the automobile has been developing, this problem would be solved. It is not so. And while it is undergoing a technological metamorphosis, upheavals such as electrification, digitization and vehicle automation are bringing their share of benefits… like new problems.
Some of these developments risk creating or accentuating this famous perceived imbalance and further limiting users’ ability to anticipate. As a result, they amplify the risk of feeling symptoms of discomfort more often. Here are the ones whose effects are already documented.
Electrification: fewer landmarks and more abrupt movements
An electric car motor is more linear and quieter than a heat engine. This advantage has a downside: it can hinder users in their ability to assimilate the movement of the vehicle – for example those accustomed to estimating acceleration from the noise of the engine speed, and for whom the silence of an electric motor means the loss of a landmark.
Similarly, the vibrations of the heat engine are sometimes perceived as soothing. Resting their head once morest the vibrating window is indeed beneficial to some passengers. These same vibrations are almost completely suppressed in an electric car.
The adoption of regenerative braking (allowing to recover electric autonomy during deceleration) can also be disturbing. The decelerations induced by this system, generally low frequency and sometimes sharp, can be particularly destabilizing. Just like, conversely, the jolts of the accelerator, likely to induce sudden movements due to the high and available torque of these engines.
Digitized interiors that encourage distraction
Another risky technological advance: the increasing presence of screens, ever larger and ever more numerous, inside vehicles. Because beyond their technological capacity and their attractiveness in the eyes of the user, these screens “overload” it with visual information.
Their omnipresence encourages distraction, once more at the risk of creating a conflict between visual and inertial information on the movement received by the body. By concentrating on the content of screens, a passenger restricts his ability to assimilate the “right” visual signals, which allow him to correctly perceive his position and his speed in space – namely the view outside the vehicle. This is the reason why it is not recommended to concentrate on a book or a screen during a hectic journey…
This trend towards installing screens is likely to increase over the next few years, with vehicles that might even associate screens with windows or propose the integration of virtual reality. So many invasive elements for passengers, which can impact their well-being…
Knowing that you are more likely to suffer from nausea by being stuck in a space overloaded with screens can indeed stress vulnerable passengers. This is a problem that is not insignificant when we know that the psychological state has a strong influence on motion sickness: up to 40% of the severity of symptoms can indeed be attributed to it.
Autonomous driving and lack of anticipation
The race for the autonomous vehicle launched in recent years between the various car manufacturers will also, in all likelihood, have an impact.
For the time being, the vehicles are only equipped with a partial level of automation… but in the future they will be able to fly themselves. In other words, the task of driving, the best way to anticipate trajectories and limit symptoms, is destined to disappear in the long term.
For those who have always driven, the situation may be complicated. Our susceptibility to being subject to motion sickness depends in part on our habit of being a simple passenger, regular drivers might thus discover themselves susceptible to motion sickness to the point of being unfit to travel in highly autonomous vehicles.
In addition, with the disappearance of the driving position, the passenger compartments will be redesigned to become more welcoming, like living rooms on wheels. These new configurations will offer more freedom to passengers who might, for example, orient their seat back to the road to chat with other occupants.
However, in the collective unconscious, sitting back to the road is associated with an increased risk of discomfort. Although experiments have shown that it makes no difference, this idea may constitute a psychological bias facilitating the onset of symptoms.
Allowing its passengers to devote their “unnecessary” travel time to fun or productivity activities is one of the promises of the autonomous vehicle. But, as we have seen, the use of screens leads to a distraction from “good” visual signals, which promotes the onset of motion sickness. The popularization of taxi and VTC travel, where users have their eyes glued to their tablets and other laptops, has already confirmed this trend.
Finally, it should be noted that in non-autonomous vehicles, the incidence of motion sickness remains moderate, because drivers can adapt their driving style if their passengers report discomfort. However, this human dimension will disappear in autonomous vehicles, whose driving style will be less flexible and less natural than that of a human driver.
The stress or lack of confidence associated with this mode of driving might once more become aggravating factors.
The human being, the main obstacle to technological developments?
The multiple factors mentioned might therefore penalize the emergence of the “vehicle of tomorrow”, autonomous and electric, initially supposed to increase mobility and accessible to the greatest number of users.
In the absence of effective means to counter it, it is possible that an increase in cases of motion sickness in these vehicles leads to their rejection. If we take into account the ethical, psychological and legal dimensions linked to their development, the human factor thus constitutes the main obstacle to the introduction of these new types of vehicles.
For these same reasons, for several years we have been witnessing a growing interest from car manufacturers and suppliers for this phenomenon in order to better understand it and finally reduce it effectively… not for reasons of public interest, but because it would compromise the adoption of these new technologies.
To date, the causes and trigger mechanisms of motion sickness are still not clearly understood, so industrial research is focusing on how to limit its occurrence. Leads are under study.
These include the use of visual signals, sound et tactile to help the user better perceive and anticipate the movements of the vehicle, or even the programming of a comfortable driving style, imitating that of a human being and limiting sudden accelerations.
This article is produced by The Conversation and hosted by 20 Minutes.
1682753576
#motion #sickness #increase #cars #tomorrow
