Objective Assessment and Mitigation of Motion Sickness in Autonomous Vehicles

One of the most important factors for the successful deployment and public acceptance of AVs is the comfort (physical and psychological) of their users or discomfort due to motion sickness. It is influenced by vehicle controller settings and driving style, lack of control and trust, low situational awareness, and potential engagement of users in non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). This presentation will explain various factors that affect user (dis)comfort in AVs and provides a state-of-the-art review of technology and methods for objective assessment of motion sickness, as well as some potential approaches to actively mitigate it.  

Jaka Sodnik is a Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana. His research focuses on human factors and Human-Machine Interaction in vehicles, with a special emphasis on user comfort in Autonomous Vehicles. He has led several national and international projects in collaboration with industrial partners such as Renault, Ford, Toyota, ISID, and Virtual Vehicle, as well as academic institutions including the University of Washington, Virginia Tech, Stanford, CARISMA, and PLUS. These projects have targeted the development of methods for assessing the performance, safety, and comfort of Autonomous Vehicles. Additionally, he provides advisory services to several R&D departments of companies in Slovenia which specialise in Autonomous Vehicle deployment and driving simulations.