Research has found that an increase in motion sickness has accompanied the growth in popularity of electric vehicles — and there is a scientific explanation for why.
“Greater sickness in EVs can be attributed to a lack of previous experience, as both a driver and as a passenger, where the brain lacks accuracy in estimating the motion forces because it relies on previous experience in other types of cars,” researcher William Emond told The Guardian reporter Jess Thomson (2025). “This is, for example, why almost everyone becomes sick in zero-gravity environments.”
“If we are accustomed to traveling in non-EVs, we are used to understanding the car’s motion based on signals such as engine revs, engine vibrations, torque, etc.,” Edmond added. “Yet, traveling in an EV for the first time is a new motion environment for the brain, which needs adaptation.”
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Thomson, Jess; 2025. “Do electric vehicles make people more carsick?” The Guardian. Posted June 21.
Technology has normalised the sustenance of speeds in the order of 70 mph (cars on a highway), 200 mph (high speed rail) or 500 mph (jet aircraft), but biologically humans are still the same creature that until 250 years ago could at most hope to cross twenty miles in a day.