Evaluation of carsickness countermeasures in a test track study

Abstract

Carsickness is an inconvenience to many people traveling in a car and might become even more problematic with increasing vehicle automation. As part of a user study, several countermeasures were developed and evaluated. A modified test car with participants seated as passengers was driven around a standardized, enclosed test track. A reading task was employed to elicit carsickness. The countermeasures included (1) visual cues about upcoming vehicle motions, (2) so-called non-read zones on demanding parts of the test track during which participants were supposed not to read and finally (3) listening to an audiobook. Several measures were employed to quantify participants’ state of distress. The continuously asked Misery Scale ratings revealed a steady rise of carsickness levels in the baseline condition without any countermeasure (p < 0.001). The countermeasure condition (1) revealed to systematically lower the carsickness level (p < 0.001). Though with a moderate effect size (η² = 0.074). The countermeasures (2) and (3) both decreased the Misery Scale ratings much more distinctively (η² = 0.369). The obtained results show that visual cues are helpful in decreasing carsickness. However, switching to the audio channel or simply stopping the reading task during demanding road stretches is much more helpful.