“I’ll just work from the car,” I told myself. That plan lasted only a few minutes. As the vehicle wound through tight mountain switchbacks, staring at a screen quickly brought on the familiar wave of motion sickness: that clammy, unsettled feeling that starts deep in the stomach and only gets worse. Looking up at the horizon offered no relief. Then I remembered one of Apple’s more unusual features: Vehicle Motion Cues.
Apple introduced Vehicle Motion Cues in 2024 as a way to reduce motion sickness when using an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook in a moving vehicle. The feature relies on a device’s accelerometer and gyroscope to detect motion, then displays animated dots along the edges of the screen. In practice, the effect can be surprisingly powerful. In this case, it did more than help—it eliminated the nausea altogether.
The science behind the feature is straightforward. Motion sickness often happens when the eyes focus on a stationary display while the inner ear senses the car accelerating, braking, and turning. That sensory mismatch can trigger nausea. Vehicle Motion Cues are designed to bridge the gap by adding visual indicators that move with the vehicle. If the car turns right, the dots shift left across the display. If the car slows down, they slide forward, giving the brain visual confirmation of what the body is already feeling.
As odd as it may sound, the feature works. With Vehicle Motion Cues enabled, it has been possible to read for hours in the Kindle app and even write 1,000-word reviews while riding in a camper van. It has also become useful for more than one passenger. The writer’s wife now uses the feature as well, saying it has changed the way they manage work and life while traveling.
Vehicle Motion Cues can be found in the accessibility settings on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Users can switch the feature on, turn it off, or have it appear automatically when motion is detected. Manual control may be the better option for some, especially for those who do not want the dots appearing while they are driving. The black dots are generally subtle, but on long, straight stretches of road they can remain still and occasionally distract from maps, text, or images. Apple also allows users to adjust the dots’ size, color, and density, though the default settings appear to work well.
For faster access, the feature can also be assigned to a Back Tap shortcut on iPhone. On devices running iOS 18 or later, users can go to Accessibility, then Touch, then Back Tap, and assign Vehicle Motion Cues to a double tap. It is a small tweak, but one that makes the feature much easier to use on the go.
I’m fortunate that I remembered this obscure accessibility feature that I used almost daily on a recent two-month road trip around Europe. Hopefully you’ll find similar success when traveling this summer.
