Ford set their sights on a new battle – The battle to combat car sickness

Car sickness – it’s enough to make you sick, isn’t it?

We’ve all been there, whether it was a family road trip, a long drive to a sports match or just a 10-minute drive to your local supermarket, car sickness has sprung up on us and made what could’ve been a nice journey a living nightmare.

Well not for much longer thanks to Ford, your friendly neighbourhood car manufacturer, they’ve been working with experts to research car sickness. They’ve found out how many of us suffer from it and what can cause it, all because they want to make future Ford models free from car sickness. Result!

Who is affected?
The short answer: most of us. Ford’s research suggests that two in three of us have felt car sick at one point, with half of that group being physically sick because of it.

Unsurprisingly, children and teenagers suffer from motion sickness more than adults. But adults still feel the symptoms regularly.

During Ford’s research – which was completed with the help of motion-sickness experts – adults were asked to stare at their mobile screens while sat in a moving car. On average it only took them 10 minutes to start feeling ill.

But it’s not just those pesky mobile phones that can set us off.

What causes car sickness?
Sitting in the backseat with your head down, staring at a screen, is likely to cause motion sickness. Add winding roads and stop-start traffic to this, and you’ve got a dangerous combination.

Car sickness seems to be caused by confusion. Your brain will get signals from your eyes that don’t really compute with your body’s current state of balance. It’s a mighty mental mix-up that can ruin any car journey.

If you see someone yawning and beginning to sweat, watch out; those are the normal warning signs.

What can be done to prevent car sickness?
Their tests seemed to show that spatial/ road awareness played a huge role in stopping motion sickness. When they allowed passengers to see the road from the front and sides, sickness was much less of a problem. This is because a greater awareness can prevent that annoying mental mix-up.

Ford plans on using the information they learned to change the way they design their cars in the future, to make journeys more comfortable and less… sicky.

For now, they recommend moving to the middle seat at the back (so you can see more of the road ahead), not looking at a screen, using air conditioning to keep fresh air moving through the car and even drinking cola as a good way to stop sickness.

And we’d recommend taking a bag or two… just in case.

Would you buy a Ford car if it meant you’d be leaving car sickness at the door?