The University of Iowa

College of Engineering

Driving Safety Research Institute

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.

Distracted driving research

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.

NADS-1 simulator bay

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

miniSim

miniSim: A year in review

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

FY22 resulted in a number of system upgrades and custom development for the miniSim team.

Tim Brown, PhD and Rose Schmitt collaborate on testing a driving scenario for an impairment study.

Detecting impairment from cannabis

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

The theme this past year with much of our drugged-driving research has revolved around various methods of detecting driving impairment from cannabis use.

Mormon Trek Blvd in Iowa City

Impact of 'road diets'

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

For more than two decades, the Iowa DOT has been encouraging Iowa communities to consider converting certain four-lane streets to three lanes (also known as a “road diet”) with the aim to improve safety and reduce crashes.

Roe (pictured) is shown driving the NADS Ford Transit and is also safety lead for our ADS for Rural America demonstration project

Roe takes on new responsibility with Iowa ATC

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Spearheaded by the Iowa DOT, the Iowa Advisory Council on Automated Transportation (ATC) is setting the course for the future of automated transportation in Iowa.

Students Tommy Rogers and Marcus Miller worked on the robotics platform this past summer, along with and Kyle Chi (not pictured)

Advancing high school robotics

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Three high school students spent this past summer making enhancements to a robot car.

Inside NADS-1 simulator

NADS lands contract with NHTSA for automated vehicle research

Thursday, October 20, 2022

The University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) has secured a contract with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a project that will look at roadway interactions between human-driven and automated vehicles.

Automated shuttle bus on rural Iowa road

ADS for Rural America

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

NADS-1 bay, 3D globe image

Tour our tech

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