Apple motion cues helped a reviewer avoid car sickness
The built-in Apple feature uses moving dots on the screen to match a vehicle’s motion and may help passengers use devices in cars.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues helped The Verge’s Thomas Ricker read and write from the passenger seat without the car sickness he usually felt while looking at a screen. The report points to a built-in accessibility tool that could make iPhones, iPads and MacBooks more usable for passengers who struggle with motion sickness in moving vehicles.
Ricker wrote that he tested the feature during a two-month road trip around Europe and used it almost daily. He said the tool let him read books in the Kindle app for hours and write 1,000-word reviews while his wife drove their camper van.
Apple introduced Vehicle Motion Cues in 2024, according to The Verge. Apple says the feature uses a device’s accelerometer and gyroscope to detect movement and display animated dots around the edges of the screen.
How the dots are meant to help
The Verge described the problem as a mismatch between what a rider sees and what the inner ear senses: the eyes focus on a stationary display while the body feels the car turn, brake and accelerate. Apple’s cue system tries to reduce that mismatch by moving dots in a way that corresponds with the vehicle’s motion.
According to Ricker’s account, the dots move across the screen when the car turns and shift when the car brakes. He wrote that when the feature was enabled, his nausea was reduced to the point that he could keep working or reading in situations that previously made screen use difficult.
The effect is visual and persistent, but Ricker said the default black dots were mostly unobtrusive. He also reported some drawbacks: on long straight roads, the dots can sit still and interfere with maps, text and images.
Where to find the setting
Vehicle Motion Cues can be set up through Accessibility settings on iOS, iPadOS and macOS, according to The Verge. Users can turn the feature on or off manually, or set it to appear automatically when vehicle motion is detected.
Ricker said he prefers manual control so the dots do not appear while he is driving. He also noted that users can change dot size, color and density, though he found Apple’s default settings worked well for him.
For faster access on an iPhone, Ricker configured the feature to toggle with a double tap on the back of the device. He said that shortcut can be set under Accessibility, then Touch, then Back Tap, with the Double Tap gesture assigned to Vehicle Motion Cues on devices running iOS 18 or later.
The Verge’s report is based on one reviewer’s experience, not a clinical study. Still, Ricker’s account suggests Apple’s relatively obscure accessibility feature may be worth trying for passengers who want to use a screen in the car without triggering motion sickness.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.