Observing passenger behavior and motion sickness development in autonomous vehicles – A driving study on public roads

Highly automated vehicles (HAV) enable passengers to engage in non-driving related activities (NDRA), which are a known factor for increasing motion sickness (MS). Surveys show that NDRAs will not significantly change compared to manual driving, but they lack experiential insight. The study investigated NDRAs in automated versus manual driving, the influence of MS susceptibility, and the effect of self-chosen NDRAs on MS. In the online survey (N = 611), 52% of participants reported avoiding NDRAs to prevent MS. NDRA frequency showed a small but significant effect of MS susceptibility on certain NDRA choices. Within the on-road study (N = 44), most participants (86%) chose reading as NDRA, either on a smartphone or in a book. Video recordings showed smartphones and tablets as the most frequently used devices. No influence of MS susceptibility on NDRA choice was observed in automated driving. Most participants reported they were reading during MS occurrence.