Uber’s proposed system used a light bar and motorized seat, but the system patented by Sivak and Schoettle just involves some eyewear. Lights fitted to the glasses flash in the wearer’s peripheral vision, which is supposed to help reconcile what a person is seeing with the movement of the vehicle. A patent covers both wearable and vehicle-based versions of the system, according to the University of Michigan.

Both the Uber and the University of Michigan systems rely on lights to keep autonomous-car passengers from vomiting, but Uber’s version works in concert with a special seat that can both move and blow air over specific parts of the body. The University of Michigan system offers the option of portability, which could make it easier to commercialize.

Being granted a patent doesn’t make a technology commercially viable, but the University of Michigan does plan to shop its system around to automakers and suppliers. Researchers believe motion-sickness deterrents will be more important in self-driving cars because everyone will be a passenger. About half of adults get motion sick while reading a book in a car, according to the university.

But even if a solution is found, people may not want to ride in self-driving cars if there is a high chance of getting carsick. Having to put on special glasses to avoid losing your breakfast on the morning commute doesn’t sound like the most glamorous kind of future.

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The Chinese government is blocking foreign companies from mapping its roads in great detail, according to a Financial Times report. The restrictions, which reportedly do not apply to Chinese firms, are being instituted in the name of national security. China is concerned about spying.

China has restricted the recording of geographic information for more than a decade because it believes giving other countries access to that information constitutes a security risk. Geographic surveys can’t be performed without permission from the government, and many digital cameras don’t record GPS coordinates for geotagging, as they do in other countries, according to Fortune.

The restrictions on mapping mean foreign companies looking to sell or operate self-driving cars in China may have to partner with local firms to gain access to all of that precious map data. This wouldn’t be too different from the situation foreign automakers currently face in China.

Foreign automakers that want to build cars in China have to partner with a local automaker. This arrangement has led to concerns over the theft of intellectual property, although many companies have complied in order to gain access to a large enough share of the world’s biggest new-car market. A notable exception has been Tesla, although it appears the company may be moving closer to a deal to manufacture cars in China on its terms.

Chinese firms like Baidu and TuSimple are already working on autonomous driving. Their ability to map roads in their home country unrestricted may give them an advantage there, something the Chinese government probably wouldn’t mind. It’s already tried to boost the domestic electric-car industry by inflating demand through generous purchase incentives, so why not do the same with self-driving cars?

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We need to accept self-driving cars that crash, Nidhi Kalra and David G. Groves argue in a new report. Getting self-driving cars on the roads quickly is more important than waiting for “perfect” autonomous vehicles that never crash, they say, claiming that waiting could lead to more overall fatalities in the long run.

The researchers examined multiple scenarios. In one, self-driving cars are deployed en masse when they are only 10 percent safer to human drivers. That scenario was compared to possible futures when self-driving cars are only deployed when they are 75 percent to 90 percent safer than human drivers.

It turns out that only being a little safer than human drivers could have major safety benefits. Researchers found that deploying self-driving cars when they are only 10 percent safer than human drivers could save as many as half a million lives in the long term. In nearly all circumstances, deploying self-driving cars sooner rather than later will save more lives, they predict.

However, Kalra and Groves acknowledge that deploying self-driving cars when they are only a bit safer than the average human driver “may be too permissive given social expectations about the safety of robots, machines, and other automated systems.” They suggest a “middle ground” between rushing to get self-driving cars on the road as soon as they are ready, and waiting until the margin of safety to increase to what they view as an unnecessarily high level. But waiting for self-driving cars to become “perfect” will lead to more traffic deaths overall, they argue.

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