Question: are you one of those people who gets carsick when you’re not driving? Carve a corner, pull over and hurl? This basically happens because your inner ear sends a different signal to your brain from what your eyes see. Like your highschool crush, these confusing mixed messages can really make you sick to the stomach.
Sitting in the passenger’s side, in your driverless ride, trying to hurler at me…
Let’s face it. We’re soon going to live in an age where we never get behind the wheel. And that means, we’re resigned to throwing up err’time all the time whensoever we need to get into town. If Elon Musk’s prediction of a driverless future is on the horizon, then get your motion sickness tablets ready, because it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
Or not, if Jaguar Land Rover has a say in it. While Musk and Musketeers are pushing through the five levels of cartonomy, JLR has been working on a software, which will be able to determine the driving conditions that lead to motion sickness so that they can be reduced in self-driving cars. Oh yeah.
The Wellness Score offers up a score from 0 to 100 per cent, which has been algorithmic-ally calculated using 200,000 real-world and simulated test miles.
JLR say that the system can reduce the impact of motion sickness by up to 60 per cent. I like those numbers, don’t you? Although I still would prefer driving my own car, just saying.
Lesson learned in time
We can all learn something from JLR’s vomit-o-meter (I called it here). If you accelerate gradually, brake gently and carve those corners smoother than Jamie Oliver slicing Swiss cheese, your passengers will tip you nicely.
Conversely, if you ram the accelerator suddenly, and then give yourself a half second to brake, and hit those corners harder than Ace Ventura’s barrel roll, your passengers be bare mad.
Uber drivers take note, this is the last time I’m going to ask you to pull over so I can do my business. Next time, it’s right in your car.
This is just one part of JLR’s plans to refine its driver-assisted tech, which will include adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping systems. Their mission is for you fine folks to keep your food in your stomachs, ready for a very natural exit in the morning.
Some tips for the road
I know I said that I’d prefer driving myself around town, but honestly if JLR are going to make this kind of effort to stop us all from getting car sick, then it ain’t that bad. Bah, who are we kidding, screw self-driving cars. Can you imagine never using the stick and feeling the gear change ever again?
FYI, while we are waiting for Autonomous Cars of the Fifth Level, here are a few things you can do to reduce car sickness today:
- sit in the front of a car or in the middle of a boat
- look straight ahead at a fixed point
- If possible, roll down the window and breathe fresh air
- Keep your eyes closed and breathe slowly. In for three. Out for six. Focus.
- If your kid’s getting the tummy wiggles, distract him or her by talking, listening to music, or having a go on the mic yourself.
- If you’ve got a long drive, take regular breaks for some fresh air. Drink water and walk around a little. Stretch those sea legs.
- try ginger, which comes as a tablet or in tea. You can also help yourself to a ginger snap cookie. Maybe you can dunk your ginger snap cookie in your ginger tea #goals
Keep up to date with the latest cartonomy developments on our dedicated news page!
Also, here’s a clip on that JLR anti-puke program.
