Can acceleration-coded vibrations help alleviate passenger motion sickness? Investigation in stop-and-go passenger rides

With the deployment of high levels of vehicle automation, motion sickness is expected to become more prevalent in road transportation. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of haptic motion cueing as a countermeasure to motion sickness. During a stop-and-go ride in an electric vehicle, vibrotactile cues were generated in the seat backrest as an intervention. Grounded in the neural mismatch theory, this approach is based on a recovery hypothesis, proposing that providing somatosensory information consistent with vehicle motion forces can facilitate the restoration of sensory concordance and reduce motion sickness symptoms. In a within-subjects design, 24 participants were driven in sessions of approximately 18 min (6 laps). During the first three laps, motion sickness was induced as participants played a video game without visibility of the vehicle's surroundings. In the last three laps, a motion sickness alleviation method was applied: participants stopped gaming and gazed at the vehicle's surroundings to relieve their symptoms, with or without the vibrotactile cues. Analyses revealed no significant effect of the vibrotactile cues on symptom alleviation. Feedback from the participants emphasized user acceptance as a crucial dimension underlying the effectiveness of a haptic countermeasure. These outcomes improve understanding of haptic cues and inform the design of motion cueing systems that support motion sickness relief.