How to use a MacBook in a car or train without feeling sick

Sit facing forward, as close to the front as you can, with the screen raised so the window stays in the corner of your eye. Look up at the horizon every few minutes. Then turn on motion cues: Apple's Vehicle Motion Cues if your Mac runs macOS Tahoe or later, or SlapMac's Motion Cues if it doesn't (or if you want more control over how they look).

None of this is a cure, and it helps some people more than others. Try all of it together before you decide that screens and trains just don't mix.

Why does a laptop make you feel sick on the move?

Your body has two ways of knowing that you're moving. Your inner ear feels every bit of acceleration, braking and turning. Your eyes look at what's around you. Normally the two agree.

Now stare at a laptop on a bus. Your inner ear says you're swaying around a roundabout. Your eyes, locked on a screen that moves with you, say you're sitting perfectly still. The brain gets two stories that don't match, and nausea is how it complains.

That's also why the driver almost never gets carsick. They're watching the road and know every turn before it happens. And it's why looking out of the window helps: for a moment, your eyes see the same motion your ear feels.

What helps before you touch any settings

• Face forward. Backward-facing seats on trains are the worst for most people. In a car, the front passenger seat is best. On a bus, sit near the front.
• Raise the screen. Put the laptop on your bag so you're looking closer to straight ahead instead of down at your lap. You'll keep more of the outside world in your peripheral vision.
• Make text bigger. Press Command and plus in most apps. You'll lean in less, and you'll spend less time with your eyes fixed on tiny lines.
• Pick the right tasks. A call or a video asks less of your eyes than reading a long document or scrolling a spreadsheet. Save the dense stuff for when you're standing still.
• Get air and take breaks. Open a vent, and look out at the horizon for a minute every so often, before you start feeling bad. Once nausea sets in, it's hard to reverse.

If you get properly sick on most trips, it's worth asking a pharmacist about motion sickness tablets. They know what works with whatever else you take.

Turn on Vehicle Motion Cues on your Mac

Apple has had Vehicle Motion Cues on the iPhone for a while, and macOS Tahoe brought them to the Mac. They put small animated dots at the edges of the screen that move with the vehicle, so your eyes get some of the motion your inner ear is feeling.

1. Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Click Accessibility in the sidebar, then Motion. You may need to scroll down.
3. Turn on Vehicle Motion Cues.

According to Apple's support page, the feature works on Mac laptops except the MacBook Neo, the M1 MacBook Air and the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro or earlier. Apple also says it works best when you're seated facing forward, and obviously it's not for the person driving.

SlapMac's Motion Cues: the same idea, more ways to tune it

SlapMac has its own version, called Motion Cues. It works the same way, using the accelerometer inside your MacBook to move cues along the edges of the screen as the vehicle accelerates, brakes and turns. There are two reasons you might want it instead of Apple's.

The first is that it runs on macOS 14.6 Sonoma and later, so you don't need to be on Tahoe. The second is control. You can choose between four looks (Lava, Ice, Beacon and Simple), then adjust size, spread, visibility and how many balls there are. Sensitivity has three settings, Gentle, Balanced and Responsive, and you can reverse either direction if the movement feels backwards to you.

A few things worth knowing before your first trip:

• Let the Mac settle in its spot before you switch Motion Cues on, and press Recenter if you move it.
• The cues show up on the built-in display. They let clicks pass straight through and follow you across apps, Spaces and full-screen windows.
• The Simple look inverts the desktop under each cue, which needs Screen Recording permission. Lava, Ice and Beacon don't.
• If you also use Apple's Vehicle Motion Cues, turn one of them off. Two sets of dots is not twice as calming.

The Motion Cues page has a demo you can play with in the browser to see what the four looks are like.

Do motion cues actually work?

The idea makes sense: give your eyes a signal that matches what your inner ear feels, and the two stories stop contradicting each other. Apple shipping the feature on iPhone, iPad and Mac tells you they think it's worth having.

But how much it helps varies a lot from person to person. Some people find the dots make a long ride easy. Others notice no difference. Try it on a short trip first, ideally with the seat and screen habits above, and you'll know quickly which group you're in.

The short version

1. Sit facing forward, near the front.
2. Raise the laptop and make the text bigger.
3. Do easy tasks on bumpy roads, and look out of the window before you need to.
4. Turn on Vehicle Motion Cues (macOS Tahoe and later) or SlapMac's Motion Cues (macOS 14.6 and later).