Sick of being driven? -- Prevalence and modulating factors of carsickness in the European population in context of automated driving

TL;DR

This study investigates the prevalence and factors influencing carsickness in European adults, highlighting demographic, situational, and behavioral factors, and discusses implications for automated vehicle design to improve passenger comfort.

Contribution

It provides comprehensive data on carsickness prevalence and modulating factors across multiple European countries, informing automated vehicle development to mitigate discomfort.

Findings

30% of adults experienced carsickness

Factors like country, gender, age, and seating position influence carsickness

Countermeasures' effectiveness varies and impacts acceptability of automated driving

Abstract

As in automated driving the driver becomes a passenger, carsickness might reduce comfort for susceptible individuals. Insights in the prevalence of carsickness and its modulating factors are considered useful for the development of automated vehicles to mitigate or prevent its occurrence. An online survey was conducted with N = 3999 participants in Spain, Sweden, Poland, and Germany. 30% of participants reported to have already experienced carsickness as adult. The frequency of carsickness was modulated not only by demographic factors (country, gender, age), but also by frequency of being a passenger, type of non-driving related task, road type, and the seating position in car. Furthermore, the efficiency of applied countermeasures, temporal aspects of carsickness development, as well as the relation of carsickness with the acceptability of automated driving and the effect on subjective fitness to drive was investigated. The results are discussed with focus on automated driving.