Volvo develops anti-motion sickness solution for autonomous driving using sound as medium

Recently, according to foreign media reports, Volvo announced that it will cooperate with video game company Pole Position Production to study solutions to prevent passengers from motion sickness in future self-driving cars. The solutions of both parties will use sound as the medium.

Volvo's research has two goals: one is to explore whether sound can help reduce motion sickness, and the other is to help people trust self-driving cars more. Volvo experimented with two different types of sounds, one to prompt passengers what is about to happen, and the other to alert passengers to objects (such as pedestrians) that the vehicle perceives.

“As autonomous vehicles develop, we will move from a driver-centric sound interface to a passenger-centric sound interface. The way sound was designed before doesn’t necessarily work for autonomous vehicles,” said Fredrik Hagman, interactive sound designer at Volvo Cars. “Let’s say we can play a sound to announce what the (vehicle) is about to do so that the passengers are aware of that information. So if we’re going to accelerate, we’ll play a sound 1-2 seconds in advance to mimic acceleration,” added Fredrik Hagman.

Volvo has been conducting trials since August last year. After a small-scale trial, Volvo said the sound prompts relieved the uncomfortable feeling. Volvo reported that participants said the sounds helped prepare for what was about to happen or "adjust the body."