Jaguar Land Rover programmes self-driving cars to reduce motion sickness

British automotive company Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it is developing a software that will help in reducing motion sickness by adapting the driving style of future self-driving cars.

The technology will be used to assess passenger comfort and accordingly adjust driving controls to minimise the impact of motion sickness, which affects around 70% of people.

In the first phase of the project, the Jaguar Land Rover research team developed a personalised ‘wellness score’ that can reduce the impact of motion sickness by up to 60%.

The score was then implemented into the self-driving software.

The software, which leverages data from 20,000 real-world and virtually simulated test miles, will be installed on all of the company’s  vehicles to optimise driving style.

According to the company, the new system will help the vehicle to adjust acceleration, braking and lane positioning to reduce motion sickness among passengers.

In addition, the project will help the automotive company in incorporating more refined advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) features on future Jaguar and Land Rover models.

Jaguar Land Rover chief medical officer Dr Steve Iley said: “Mobility is rapidly changing, and we will need to harness the power of self-driving vehicles to achieve our goal of zero accidents and zero congestion.

“Solving the problem of motion sickness in driverless cars is the key to unlocking the huge potential of this technology for passengers, who will be able to use the travelling time for reading, working or relaxing.”

The project is part of the Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero programme, which seeks to achieve zero accidents and zero congestion.

Last year, the company partnered with BlackBerry to develop autonomous vehicles.