How do I go to motion & orientation in accessibility?

Open Settings → Accessibility → Motion → Vehicle Motion Cues.

How do I choose your preferred setting?

Select "Show Automatically" to let iPhone decide when you are in a vehicle, or choose "Always On" to always display the dots when using the phone.

How do I add it to control center for quick access?

Go to Settings → Control Center and add "Vehicle Motion Cues" to your included controls. This lets you turn it on with a single tap without digging through Settings.

How do I test on your next car ride?

The next time you are a passenger in a car, open your phone and watch for the small dots at the screen edges. They should appear and move with the car's motion.

How do I adjust if the dots are distracting?

If the dots bother you, switch to "Always Off" in Settings. Some people find the visual helpful and others prefer not to see the dots at all.

TekSure — Free Tech Help for Beginners & Seniors

Motion sickness happens when what your eyes see does not match what your inner ear feels. When you're a passenger in a moving vehicle and looking at a phone screen, your eyes see a still image but your body feels the car turning, accelerating, and stopping. The mismatch causes nausea for many people.

Apple added a feature called Vehicle Motion Cues in iOS 18 to address this. It shows small animated dots along the edges of your screen that move in sync with the vehicle's motion. Your peripheral vision picks up this movement, which helps your brain reconcile what your body is feeling with what your eyes are seeing — reducing or eliminating the sickness.

The dots are subtle. They sit in the corners of the screen and move in gentle arcs to reflect the car's movements. They do not cover content you are reading or watching.

You can set Vehicle Motion Cues to turn on automatically (the phone detects when you are in a moving vehicle), always on, or always off. The automatic option works well because it only activates when the phone's sensors detect consistent vehicle-type motion.

This feature requires iPhone 13 or newer running iOS 18 or later. If you are prone to car sickness, it is worth turning on before a long road trip.