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