Researchers Don’t Want Autopilot Cars To Become Mobile Vomitoriums

Motion sickness is a big problem for certain people every time they take a ride in which they don't drive. So what can they do in self-driving vehicles? This question is eventually being looked into in an experiment that researchers design to see the reason behind motion sickness.

Researchers from the University of Michigan carried out a study because they figured out if so many people, maybe millions, cannot work or read in self-driving cars, they have no reasons to even get one. Moreover, there haven't been any investigations on matters like why some people in this context have motion sickness or what makes the problem become worse or better.

Monica Jones, who is the project’s lead investigator, explained in a press release:

Cars are meant to make users comfortable instead of stopping just kind of losing their lunch. What do cars need to include? That is the aim of the initial experiments in question.

The researchers gathered 52 people from various demographics, let them sit in a self-driving car while it was navigating Mcity Test Facility of the university, the urban-like environment designed for work like this. During the drive, there were usual stops, accelerations and turns that users would experience while being driven within a city. Besides, participants were required to answer questions of a researcher also in the car as well as complete a few basic tasks using an iPad, which creates vomitoriums just thinking of taking part in.

Participants were observed to see if they have any indications of discomfort and they were also asked to report any similar feelings and absolutely, inform the researchers when they wanted to stop. There were also sensors watching for changes in perspiration, temperature or other things.

Even though the team’s early findings weren't exactly surprising, it was the start. It's no surprise people feeling sick using a device as they sit in a self-driving car. However, this situation hasn’t been actually studied before. Therefore, no matter what ways we will treat it, directly observing is a must. Moreover, there were some factors happening unexpectedly, such as people reporting higher levels of motion sickness. Why and when does this happen?

Monica Jones said: “Passenger responses are complicated and have many dimensions.” With the aim of measuring those responses, the researchers created a database including thousands of observations and measurements which go beyond a simple “misery scale,” however, include context as well as other kinds of discomfort and pain.

This is simply the beginning of a study in the longer term about how to keep autonomous vehicles as popular and inclusive as possible, which will surely be conducted. If there is an explanation for it, using an autonomous car for daily commuting will likely to be a common choice.