Your iPhones, iPads will soon help you tackle carsickness with a brand-new feature

Some of you may be prone to the occasional motion sickness, while in a car or bus. For some, they may feel like throwing up, and others yet, may even have a vertigo-like sensation.

Either way, it’s annoying all the same, isn’t it? Especially when trying to get work done on your phone or tablet on the go, or maybe just watching a movie on a long journey. Well, if you happen to have an iPhone or iPad, Apple might have something to help you out. Intrigued? Read on.

What exactly is motion sickness?

On the occasion of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, along with several other new accessibility features, Apple introduced a feature called Vehicle Motion Cues to its iPhone and iPad lineup. To explain how it works though, it would probably be a good idea to understand just what motion sickness entails.

ALSO READ: Apple is bringing eye-tracking to select iPhones, iPad

While riding in a vehicle, your body remains stationary, even as the vehicle moves around. What this does is cause the rest of your body to send conflicting signals to your brains, which may result in you feeling nauseous, dizzy, suffering from cold sweats and headaches, and more. In essence, it is caused by a sensory conflict, which causes a gap between what you see and what you feel.

Motion sickness is triggered even more in a person when they’re looking at their phone, tablet or any other devices, which may seemingly appear to be stationary, while travelling.

How do vehicle motion cues work?

When the vehicle motion cues setting is enabled on your iPhone or iPad’s, the screen will begin to display animated black dots on the edges of the screen. These will move along with the motion of the vehicle you’re travelling in.

As your vehicle turns left or right, or stops, the dots will also move along with it, to help reduce the previously mentioned sensory conflict. This is also done in a manner such that it doesn’t get in the way of your work (or your movie).

Other new accessibility features to look out for on iPads and iPhones

One of the other cool accessibility features we mentioned earlier happens to be eye-tracking capabilities. This, in essence, will allow the differently abled to navigate around an iPad or iPhone using just their eyes.

Another such feature is Music Haptics. What this will do is play light taps, textures and small vibrations in iPhones, which allow those hard of hearing otherwise to experience music in a whole new way.

ALSO READ: 5 iOS 18 features that are coming to your iPhones soon

Most of these features are expected to be rolled out with iOS 18, the first glimpse of which we will likely get at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) 2024, slated to start on June 10, and conclude on June 14.