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

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.

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

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.