Today's headache for Elon: Do electric vehicles make people more carsick?

[Attilatheblond]

With electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world – in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 – a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.

There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies.

“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,” said William Emond, a PhD student researching car sickness at the Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard in France.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2025/jun/21/electric-vehicles-carsick]

So, maybe when our bodies get used to different cues in EVs re motion, maybe we won't need barf bags when riding shotguns? Or just more evidence that designers and engineers need some cross discipline colleagues? Maybe EV tech needs to recognize the human?

Hope Elon has another miserable week.

[marble falls]

1. A totally miserable week, where ICE waylays and bundles him off to Sudan.

[RoadRunner]

2. Just SEEING a Tesla makes me sick

Especially an ugly ass Tesla pickup.

[Attilatheblond]

3. Thinking of calling Tesla pickp the Tesla Big Trunk

cuz from what I have read, it fails most expectations as a pickup truck