Driving Safety Research Institute | College of Engineering | The University of Iowa

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

Congrats to McGehee on his tenure

Monday, May 9, 2022

Congratulations to NADS Director Daniel McGehee, PhD, as he has recently been promoted and tenured as part of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Alumni Spotlight: Shan Bao, PhD

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Alumni spotlight of Shan Bao, a former Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa who researched automotive human factors

Webinar recording: Cannabis and Driving Safety - What's new and what's next?

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Watch a panel discussion of recent research findings on cannabis and driving, including what research is needed to better understand how cannabis impacts driving performance and safety, as well how improved technology might be able to detect impaired driving.

ADS for Rural America webinar 1 recording: Focus on Safety

Sunday, April 3, 2022

ADS for Rural America project website

Watch a recording of our first webinar about our ADS for Rural America project, "Focus on Safety," held on Thursday, April 21.

Drug use in crashes higher during COVID-19 pandemic

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things, including the prevalence of drugged driving. The University of Iowa was selected as one of the collection sites to examine the prevalence of drugged driving among seriously and fatally injured road users

Farm equipment with SaferTrek GPS/video data devices

SaferTrek: Sharing the Road

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Using devices installed on farm equipment, researchers collected data and video on vehicle interactions with on-road farm equipment.

A Tesla Model S75D with custom data collection capabilities is one of five vehicles in the fleet

Does regenerative braking have safety benefits?

Monday, February 14, 2022

If you’ve driven an electric vehicle, you’ve likely used regenerative braking. But is there a safety benefit to this feature? “You basically get a head start on the braking so that the stopping distance is reduced,” explained Chris Schwarz, PhD.

Toyota studying innovative headlights that project onto pavement to alert pedestrians

Innovative headlights could help save pedestrians, bicyclists

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center

A new type of headlight may help save pedestrians from getting struck by vehicles at night, studied at University of Iowa with researchers from Toyota CSRC.

McGehee, Ahmad appear on PAVE panel, see recording

Thursday, January 27, 2022

PAVE Campaign

We're partnering with PAVE Campaign for their virtual panel "All AVs Are Local: Iowa's Automated Rural Shuttle" on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 1 p.m. CT! Join our own Dan McGehee and Omar Ahmad as they discuss our ADS for Rural America automated shuttle project, with a recording available after Feb. 2.

‘Arbitrary’ cutoffs of THC levels make it difficult to measure impaired driving

Friday, January 14, 2022

NBC News

Knowing if you’re too impaired to drive due to cannabis use is not nearly as straightforward as it is from alcohol use. Finding a way to measure this is a topic of some of our ongoing research.

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.