Driving Safety Research Institute | 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

A year in review: Rural roads, drowsy driving, cannabis, and more

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

See what we’ve been up to in the past year in our NADS Annual Report, with stories about ADS for Rural America, driving drowsy, regenerative braking safety benefits, cannabis and driving, and more.

Co-pilot and safety driver in the automated shuttle bus

ADS for Rural America project update: Dec. 2021

Friday, December 10, 2021

ADS for Rural America project website

The ADS for Rural America project launched in October 2021 and has completed its first phase of data collection. See an example map and learn more about the roles of the safety driver and co-pilot.

Ben Berhow checks analog and digital inputs on a miniSim cab

Students build miniSims, on-the-job experience

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Ben Berhow and Wil Comer—two seniors majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of Iowa—both landed part-time jobs with the miniSim team at the National Advanced Driving Simulator this past year, giving them valuable on-the-job experience.

Study subject wearing a mobile, wireless X24 EEG headset and completing the Cannabis Impairment Detection Application (CIDA) on a tablet

Researchers identify brain markers that signify cannabis impairment, win ‘top paper’ award

Friday, October 22, 2021

In an important step toward identifying who is too impaired to drive due to cannabis use, a team of researchers from the University of Iowa and Advanced Brain Monitoring found there are specific markers in brain activity linked to cannabis intoxication that consistently and negatively impact driving performance.

Podcast: The Latest Research on Drugged Driving with Timothy Brown, PhD

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Global Road Safety Podcast

Research Scientist Timothy Brown, PhD, at the National Advanced Driving Simulator discusses his extensive experience in drugged driving research studies: specifically, his work on the dangers of prescription drug and marijuana use while driving.

Automated shuttle bus on rural Iowa road

Ride with us! Participation sign-up now open

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Want to ride in a partially automated vehicle with us? We’re now looking for people who are age 65 or older, have a disability that affects their mobility (age 25 or older), or have low vision impairment (age 25 or older). We’ll be stopping in Iowa City, Hills, Riverside, and Kalona.

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.

Tour our tech

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