Motion sickness in automated vehicles (AVs) represents a key Human Factors
concern that will negatively impact the passenger experience and, ultimately,
public acceptance. Minimizing or avoiding motion sickness altogether, therefore,
becomes a strategic design goal. In this article we propose principal research
questions that need to be addressed as part of a concerted effort to understand
the causative factors of motion sickness and the need to develop and apply
common protocols to accelerate knowledge and subsequent innovation in this
field. With the ultimate goal to provide guidelines to inform the design of
future vehicles, the International Organization for Standardization standard
(ISO) 2631-1 (1997) is taken as the starting point. The current standard
provides estimates of the likelihood of motion sickness as a function of
vertical motion input only. However, in the context of AVs, and in particular in
the light of anticipated non-driving-related activities in such vehicles, the
current standard is of limited use: The model has not been validated for
horizontal and rotational motions or any potential multi-axes interactions; The
standard was derived on the basis of the percentage of passengers reaching the
point of emesis while less severe levels of motion sickness are of greater
interest and may show a different relationship between the frequency and
acceleration; Modulating factors that are able to regulate, adjust, or adapt
sickness levels are not included, in particular vision and the associated
concept of anticipation, passenger orientation, and reclination angles. Finally,
the accumulation of motion sickness knowledge in this field is severely hampered
by the absence of consistent study protocols. We here propose the identification
and development of appropriate vibration measurements and motion sickness
assessment and evaluation methods.
