Learn how to use the Vehicle Motion Cues feature on your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook to reduce motion sickness when you’re a passenger in a moving car, bus, or other vehicle. We also have a solution for Android users at the end of this article.
About motion sickness in cars and other vehicles
It’s believed that you get car sickness, nausea, dizziness, or experience similar symptoms when in a moving vehicle because of sensory conflict or a mismatch between what you see and what you feel. As per the CDC, “Motion sickness happens when the movement you see is different from what your inner ear senses.”
According to a ScienceDirect article, nearly 50 percent of people have experienced some kind of car sickness. Simple ways to reduce this include sitting in the direction in which the vehicle is moving, taking a window seat, looking at the horizon, looking out of the window, closing your eyes or sleeping, staying hydrated, distracting yourself with music, taking short breaks to stop, and so forth.
Activities like reading a book or using your phone in a moving vehicle can elevate car sickness levels. As a result, many people who have this problem just tend to stay away from these activities when on the road, which is definitely a great approach.
However, if you or your kids must use your phone or tablet when in a moving vehicle, Apple has an accessibility feature called Vehicle Motion Cues that can help reduce motion sickness and make using an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook more comfortable.
Apple’s Vehicle Motion Cues
After you enable Vehicle Motion Cues, several dots appear on the screen. Your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook uses its sensors and animates or moves these dots on the screen based on changes in your car’s motion. This helps minimize sensory conflict, eventually leading to reduced motion sickness. Note that it works best when you’re seated facing forward in the car.
Supported devices
Vehicle Motion Cues is available on:
- iPhone running iOS 18 or iOS 26
- iPad running iPadOS 18 or iPadOS 26
- MacBook Air and MacBook Pro running macOS Tahoe 26
Note: I’ve the Vehicle Motion Cues option on my M4 MacBook Air but not my M1 MacBook Pro. Both devices are on the latest version of macOS Tahoe 26. Use the comments section below to share if you have this on your Mac.
Activate and use Vehicle Motion Cues on Apple devices
1) Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad or System Settings on your MacBook.
2) Select Accessibility > Motion.
3) Tap Show Vehicle Motion Cues on your iOS device and set it to On or Automatically in Vehicle.
Automatic is the best choice, as it allows your iPhone to automatically detect when your vehicle is in motion and activate the feature. Once the motion stops, Vehicle Motion Cues dots disappear from the screen. However, be aware of false triggers as well.
On Mac, turn on the switch for “Vehicle Motion Cues.”
Customize the appearance
iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26 allow you to personalize the Vehicle Motion Cues feature to better suit your needs.
Go to Settings/System Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Vehicle Motion Cues > Customize Appearance. Now, select from a regular or dynamic pattern, dot color, larger dots, or more dots.
Add Vehicle Motion Cues to Control Center
It can take a few taps to activate this feature from device settings. To make things quicker, you can edit Control Center on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and add the Vehicle Motion Cues button there.
Going forward, tap the car with multiple dots icon to activate or deactivate the Vehicle Motion Cues feature.
Other ways to quickly trigger Vehicle Motion Cues
You can also turn on Vehicle Motion Cues using other shortcuts and features on your iPhone, such as:
The experience of using Vehicle Motion Cues
I went on a 150-mile road trip with family members and used Vehicle Motion Cues for most of the time I was in the car, and it helped me to some extent. Even though the dots on the screen are small, they feel obtrusive in the beginning. But after a while, you get used to them.
People have had varying degrees of satisfaction using Vehicle Motion Cues. You can read about them on Reddit (Post 1, 2, 3) or other forums.
What to do if you use an Android phone
If you’re on an Android phone, try the KineStop Car Sickness Aid app.
While the iPhone only puts animated dots on the edges of the screen, KineStop allows you to pick from various themes like Landscape, Dots, Focus, Horizon, Sea, Dinosaur, Animals, Space, Ice Cream, and more. This is fantastic for people for whom dots are not sufficient to reduce motion sickness.
Do more with your iPhone in the car: