Softness in the movement of electricity can aggravate kinetosis, the name given to the sickness caused by the incompatibility between our senses anticipates and what our bodies experience.
One of the most striking differences between electric cars and traditional cars with internal combustion engine is the Softness of the trip. Without engine vibrations or high mechanical noises, electricity may seem inherently more comfortable for passengers. However, recent research suggests the opposite: electric cars can actually intensify sickness on passengers due to the way our brain interprets movement.
Sickness usually arises from an incompatibility between what our senses expect and what our bodies experience. Drivers rarely feel sick because they anticipate each movement – acceleration, braking and direction. Passengers, however, do not have this forecast capacitywhich can cause discomfort. Electrics further complicate the situation, removing family signals such as engine noise and vibrations, which passengers use unconsciously to predict movement.
William Emond, a doctoral student at the University of Belfort-Montbeliard Technology in France, explained when walking on an electric and creates “a new environment of movement for the brain, which needs adaptation“. It states that our ability to estimate motion forces is less accurate in electric vehicles due to the absence of traditional sensory signs.
Studies reinforce these observations. One in 2020 related the almost silence of electric vehicles to increased kinetosis, while an investigation in 2024 suggested that bank vibrations – or lack of them – also play a role.
Regenerative braking, a characteristic of the electrical, can aggravate the problem. Unlike the sudden braking of traditional cars, regenerative braking produces a gradual slowdown when the driver takes the foot off the throttle. This continuous but subtle deceleration, It can be a disorientantespecially when combined with the strong and immediate acceleration of the electric motors, interrupting the standard of motion to which passengers are used to.
Interestingly, the characteristics themselves conceived to make electric vehicles smoother and more efficient, such as steering with a single pedal, may be in disagreement with our rooted sensory expectations. This incompatibility can be particularly challenging For those who are driving electric cars for the first time.
Experts suggest that as electric vehicles become more common, the Sickness can decrease over timeas people adapt. Future generations, especially children who grow without much experience with combustion vehicles, may have fewer problems. Still, it is possible for a part of the population to remain more prone to sickness in a completely electric scenario than in the world dominated by the combustion engines of the past.
