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.

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

dashboard photo showing advanced driving assistant systems (ADAS)

UI researchers studying ADAS features and crashes

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

They are looking for drivers who have been involved in a crash or near-crash situation in the past 12 months while driving a vehicle equipped with at least one ADAS feature to participate in a study.

University of Iowa research sheds light on drowsy driving, including risk factors, sleepiness questionnaires & ADAS applications

Monday, July 31, 2023

Auto Vision News

Drowsy driving is thought to be a probable cause in almost 40% of investigated highway crashes. While our researchers found that notifications do little to change driver performance, nothing replaces quality sleep before a long drive.

The Long and Winding Road: 25 Years of the National Advanced Driving Simulator

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

IEEE

From IEEE Xplore magazine, this article summarizes the capabilities and history behind the National Advanced Driving Simulator.

Podcast listen: Safely sharing the road with farm vehicles

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health

Listen to a short podcast on our SaferTrek project, which studied how passenger vehicles interact with farm vehicles on the road. With researchers Michelle Reyes and Cara Hamann.

Recent ISE PhD alum to begin career in driving safety research at NHTSA

Friday, July 14, 2023

Emily Shull recently graduated from the University of Iowa College of Engineering with a PhD in industrial and systems engineering. Soon she will begin her professional career as a general engineer at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).