Jaguar Land Rover works on reducing motion sickness with new autonomous tech

- New autonomous vehicles programmed to reduce motion sickness

- Intelligent software adjusts acceleration, braking and lane positioning to avoid inducing nausea

According to Jaguar Land Rover, motion sickness affects more than 70 per cent of people around the world. Therefore, the British carmaker is developing a new software for their future autonomous vehicles that will reduce motion sickness. How will it do that? Well, the self-driving cars will be programmed for a certain driving style to offer the most refined and comfortable ride possible thus reducing the induced nausea.

The first phase of the project began back in 2018. During tests, the standard vehicle was programmed to adjust the peripheral (vehicle’s driving style or the in-cabin settings) if the occupant was detected unwell. A personalised ‘wellness score’ was created with large data collection and a resulted reduced motion sickness by up to 60 per cent. Now, the experts at Jaguar Land Rover’s software engineering facility in Shannon have implemented the same score into self-driving software.

This software combines 20,000 real-world and virtually-simulated test kilometres to calculate a set of parameters for driving dynamics to be rated against. Following that, advanced machine learning ensures the car will be able to optimise its driving style based on the data. Moreover, the carmaker claims that the technology will teach each Jaguar and Land Rover vehicle how to drive autonomously while maintaining the individual characteristics of each model. JLR claims that the new autonomous tech will be built upon the current advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) feature available on all Jaguar and Land Rover models. 

Along with their ongoing ‘Destination Zero’ programme, JLR has also revealed a new ‘Project Vector’ for an advanced autonomy-ready concept for future mobility. In a post COVID19 world, customer expectations of private transport will focus on safe, clean mobility, where personal space and hygiene will be a priority. So new technologies and materials are being developed to meet these expectations while also helping to improve passenger wellbeing. It includes a ‘driver condition monitor’ and antimicrobial wireless device charging. Also, features such as cooled seats, ambient lighting and multiple seat configurations are proven to significantly reduce the likelihood of motion sickness and therefore will be a part of JLR’s future autonomous cars as well.