Driving Safety Research Institute | College of Engineering

Our Mission

We aim to make roads safer by researching the connection between humans and vehicles. We are home to the National Advanced Driving Simulator, and we now have a new name for our broader institute: the Driving Safety Research Institute.

About Us

Participate

Participate in one of our studies, or join our registry to get notified about new studies.

Rose Schmitt and John Gaspar in NADS-1 control room

Our Research

We partner with researchers around the world to study the connection between humans and vehicles.

The 24-foot NADS-1 simulator is on a six-legged base that rotates up to 330° and moves across the 64-foot square bay floor to simulate driving motions such as accelerating, lane changing, and skidding. There are 23 brakes on the large crossbeam that spans the room, while 42 hydrostatic bearings ride on a thin film of oil across smooth metal belts.

Our Tech

Simulators and Vehicles miniSim

News

Univ. of Iowa researchers aim to expand transportation options in rural parts of the state

Monday, November 4, 2024

KCRG TV-9 News

The University of Iowa recently completed a research project on a self-driving van. Specifically, it’s looking at how these automated vehicles could work in rural parts of the state.

Omar Ahmad in front of the automated shuttle bus

‘We can not forget about rural America’: UI researchers working towards accessible transportation

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

The Daily Iowan

The University of Iowa Driving Safety and Research Institute recently completed a research project to help rural America. The project hopes to combat challenges facing rural communities across Iowa and the nation.

Working to safely bring automated driving to rural roads

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Researchers at the Driving Safety Research Institute at the University of Iowa have completed more than three years of testing to learn the challenges automated vehicles encounter when operating on rural roads.

Elizabeth O'Neal explains children crossing behavior with self-driving cars

Children as pedestrians: Pedestrian safety and self-driving cars

Monday, September 16, 2024

The National Science Foundation features our partners at the Hank Virtual Environments Lab and our facility at DSRI in a new video on children crossing roads with self-driving cars.

Diagram of a standard four-lane road next to a diagram of a three-lane road with a center turn lane

Iowa research examines impact of ‘road diets’ on emergency response

Friday, August 9, 2024

Iowa Now

A new study from University of Iowa researchers examines how converting four-lane roads to three-lane roads impacts emergency responses.

University of Iowa testing drunken driver sensing technology

Monday, July 15, 2024

The Cedar Rapids Gazette

The Gazette reports: The UI Driving Safety Research Institute — home to the National Advanced Driving Simulator — recently landed $2 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to assess how effective new driver monitoring systems might be at determining if someone is driving drunk.

Automated shuttle bus on rural Iowa road

ADS for Rural America

Learn more about our Automated Driving Systems (ADS) for Rural America project, which drove a partially-automated shuttle bus through Iowa City, Hills, Riverside, and Kalona, Iowa.

Tour our tech

Take a 360 degree virtual tour of our facility, and learn more about our technology and expertise.