[The Answer Lies in Self-Reliance] As the Era of Autonomous Driving Approaches, How Can You Ride Without Back Pain?

[Financial News] An overseas autonomous driving company recently began paid robotaxi service in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the first case of a vehicle without a steering wheel or brake pedal carrying passengers for a fee. The company said it recorded 1 million cumulative riders and 3 million miles during its free trial period, and plans to deploy up to 5,000 vehicles over the next two years.
The autonomous vehicles being deployed by the company are not modified versions of conventional passenger cars. They can drive in both directions without a front or rear distinction, and the interior is designed with two rows of seats facing each other. In effect, the very concept of a driver's seat has disappeared.
Along with this trend, discussions are also active on how to design vehicle interiors. One representative option is the recliner seat. A domestic company began developing seats exclusively for autonomous vehicles in 2016 and has since unveiled concept models that recline the backrest or change the seat layout. If driving is no longer necessary, demand is likely to grow for activities such as reading, watching movies, or sleeping during travel. In a survey of passengers, the desire to sleep or rest while riding also ranked high. 
However, a posture that looks comfortable is not always good for physical health, so caution is needed. In particular, tilting the backrest slightly backward may temporarily reduce pressure on the lower back, but the story changes if you remain deeply reclined for a long time. As the pelvis shifts backward, the spine may lose its natural curve.
In a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute that examined spinal changes in 24 adults by varying the angle of a car seat backrest, the more the backrest was reclined, the more the pelvis rotated backward and the natural curve of the lumbar spine decreased. In simple terms, excessively reclining the backrest may not support the lower back comfortably, but instead alter the alignment of the pelvis and spine.
If back pain often occurs while riding in a current vehicle, it is worth first checking the backrest angle. This will become even more important as autonomous vehicles become fully commercialized and allow passengers to rest or engage in various activities during travel. Rather than reclining the backrest too far, it is better to adjust it to a slight incline of about 110 to 130 degrees so that the lower back can maintain its natural curve, and to support the lumbar area with a thin cushion placed between the back and the seat. It also helps to avoid staying in one posture for too long and to change positions periodically during the ride. However, if back pain keeps recurring even after adjusting your posture, or if numbness and pulling sensations continue into the hips and legs, this may indicate nerve damage. In that case, do not dismiss it as simple muscle fatigue; seek an accurate diagnosis and treatment.
In Korean medicine, integrated treatment for lower back pain patients may include Chuna manual therapy, acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, and herbal medicine, depending on the patient's condition. Among these, pharmacopuncture, which directly injects active ingredients from herbal medicine into acupuncture points, helps relieve lower back stiffness and improve blood circulation, aiding pain relief.
The therapeutic effects of pharmacopuncture were also demonstrated in a paper published by Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine in the SCI(E)-level international journal Journal of Pain Research. The research team randomly assigned 100 patients with lower back pain to either a pharmacopuncture group or a physical therapy group, with 50 patients in each, and followed them for 25 weeks. As a result, the reduction in the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS; 0 to 10) score was 3.6 in the pharmacopuncture group, larger than the 1.96-point reduction in the physical therapy group.
Advances in autonomous driving technology are transforming cars from simple spaces for driving into spaces for staying and living. As people are freed from driving, the range of postures and activities they can take in the car will expand, but chasing comfort alone may actually increase physical strain. When using an autonomous vehicle, it is important to adjust the seat to fit your body and avoid maintaining one posture for too long, while also paying attention to musculoskeletal health./Choi Woo-seong, director of Mokdong Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine
 


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