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

Joy Kim, PhD, commencement ceremony photo with her advisor Dan McGehee, PhD

Congrats to grad student Joy Kim on her PhD

Friday, June 28, 2024

Inside the NADS-1 simulator with graduate student Emily Shull and staff member Noah Rothermel

Driving Safety Research Institute analyzing new tech to identify alcohol impairment

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

The University of Iowa Driving Safety Research Institute was recently awarded $2 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to analyze the effectiveness of driver monitoring systems on their ability to detect if someone is driving while drunk—specifically, if they are over the legal limit or not.

2022 DSRI Annual Report wins national communications award

Friday, May 24, 2024

Our 2022 Annual Report has been recognized by the 30th Annual Communicator Awards by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA).

A group of students huddle around a portable driving simulator.

Celebrating 10 years of SAFER-SIM

Monday, April 22, 2024

Safety Research Using Simulation (SAFER-SIM) is a grant-funded Tier 1 University Transportation Center that shares its research with both students and researchers. See a summary of its impact over the last 10 years.

A bearded man stands next to the vehicle cab inside in NADS-2 simulator.

A Plethora of Driver Monitoring System (DMS) Data

Monday, April 15, 2024

Researchers at DSRI have combined data sets from six past studies that all looked at the use of various driver monitoring systems (DMS) to detect drowsiness, distraction, and other types of impairment.

A man drives a car in a driving simulator.

Two simulators, One simulation

Monday, March 25, 2024

In a multi-year project to connect the NADS-1 and NADS-2 simulators into the same virtual environment, the DSRI team upgraded the hardware and vehicle cab of the NADS-2 simulator. A new full cab is in the NADS-2 space, with a motion base for the cab that uses the miniSim architecture.

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.