Last week, Apple announced a series of new features and accessibility tools that come with iOS18. Among the new accessibility features announced by Apple, Vehicle Motion Cues may be the most meaningful for most people. 

Vehicle motion cues are designed to help reduce motion sickness in passengers looking at their mobile phones while on the move.

As Apple told Forbes, "According to research, motion sickness is generally caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and feels, and some users move."

When enabled, vehicle motion cues overlay animated dots on the screen. As the vehicle moves, your iPad or iPhone will detect movement and animate the dots accordingly. The overlaid dots can help to visualize how the vehicle is moving, help reduce sensory collisions, and could help combat motion sickness while allowing users to read recipes or scroll through Instagram.

Take a look at this animation below from Apple showing how the dots react to the different ways the car might move. 

As you can see, the dots are placed only on the left and right sides of the screen. It may be a bit distracting, but such is the price so as not to be nauseous on a road trip.

The point appears to be moving in a direction opposite to the direction the car is moving. Therefore, when you turn left, the dots begin to flow to the right. As the car moves forward, the dots flow from the top of the screen to the bottom and vice versa when braking or slowing down.

Apple's example uses relatively static apps like recipe guides and photo feeds. We'll be interested to see how it works and how it responds to video and games.

According to Apple, users can set the vehicle's motion signal to automatically turn on when they detect that the device is in a moving vehicle. Alternatively, you can turn the function on and off in the Control Center.

Beyond vehicle motion cues, CarPlay has acquired a number of accessibility upgrades as well, including voice control, speech recognition, and color filters for colorblind users.

In WWDC6, which kicks off on 10 May 2024, it will be available for iOS and other accessibility upgrades. It is expected that you will hear even more about it.