It’s a little weird how often car experts write about phones. However, phones and cars are often one and the same today. Apple Computer has a new phone feature that could make your life a little easier in the car.
This week, the company announced a series of new accessibility features for its iPhone and iPad, one of which could help prevent motion sickness in some users.
Related: Next iPhone Update Will Decode Car Symbols
Why You Get Carsick
Apple explains, “Research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel.” This conflict can be particularly acute for those staring at a stationary phone in a car that is accelerating, braking, and turning.
But every modern smartphone has an accelerometer that detects motion. Using that feature, your phone knows when you’re in a car.
Apple’s new system, called “Vehicle Motion Cues,” superimposes animated dots on the edges of the screen reflecting changes in vehicle motion. When the car accelerates, the dots move down the screen. When it brakes, they move up. The dots move left or right in response to turns.
How Moving Dots Might Help
Seeing the dots in motion gives your brain a visual cue to what the car is doing. Rather than staring at a stationary phone screen, you’re staring at a screen with points that move like the car moves.
Apple says this coordinated motion can help eliminate the disconnect between what your eyes see and what your balance system feels, which might reduce motion sickness.
Related: What Is Apple CarPlay And Do You Need It?
The feature will come as part of an operating system update “later this year.” The update will also include more voice controls for Apple CarPlay and a feature that visually notifies drivers of sirens and car horns.
Apple says the visual prompts are aimed at “drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing.” But Stellantis, parent company of Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, builds something similar into its new cars. Some automotive journalists (who will not be named) have found it useful when the stereo is particularly — my editor will admonish me for my behaviors if I finish that sentence truthfully.
