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Comment by kozak | Hacker News Reader

People tend to get less motion sickness when they are in control of the motion (i.e. drivers are not as susceptible to motion sickness as their passengers). So in this future world you might still be allowed to hold the steering wheel (if you paid for the option of having one in the car at all), but the car will take control from you immediately as soon as it decides that someone might be in danger (just like some present-day cars can auto-brake if they sense an impending collision).

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People take busses and trams and trains with no issues. There aren't any steering wheels for all passengers to hold.

OK, let's rephrase: some percentage of people will still be ready to pay extra to be able to control the car to some extent.

I try to be careful in where I sit on the train so that I can keep my pain to just a mild headache and maybe a little sweating. Just because I don't vomit on you nor complain out loud about the suffering doesn't mean it isn't happening.

I'm confused, do you need to hold a steering wheel when you take the bus?

Motion sickness comes from the conflict between your eyes and the part of your ear which tells you which way is up and lets you stay in balance. It is way less of a problem in big vehicles where you have a lot of things and people to look at, which experience the same forces as you and so move the way your brain expects. Being in control of these forces is another way of aligning what you perceive and what your brain expects. Motion sickness is very real, don't discount it as a non issue.

Could a windowless vehicle help this? If the car is in control, there's really not any need for windows. I know we are a very long way from that level of autonomous cars, but I don't think motion sickness is the biggest hurdle we will need to overcome. There is room for a lot of creative solutions.

A windowless vehicle makes it worse, because you don't see any movement, you just feel it. As klibertp said....

> Motion sickness comes from the conflict between your eyes and the part of your ear which tells you which way is up and lets you stay in balance.

If there's no windows, then your eyes will say "We're not moving", but your inner motion sensor in your ear will say "We're definitely moving", and you'll create motion sickness.

It's for the same reason some people feel motion sickness in some VR apps that involve movement in the virtual world that doesn't match your real world movement, such as driving a car in VR. Your eyes say "We're moving", but your ear says "No we aren't!", and the discrepancy triggers motion sickness.

The appearance of control might be a better solution for that problem, as the many of the efficiencies gained with self driving cars are not just accidents avoidance.

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