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.

News

Man driving with marijuana in hand

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

Friday, January 14, 2022
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.
2021 NADS Annual Report

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
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.
Global Road Safety Podcast logo

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

Thursday, October 7, 2021
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. 

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.