NHTSA Administrator Rosekind Tours NADS

The University of Iowa (UI) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have had a cooperative agreement over the past 15 years. Under this agreement, the UI is the host site for the world-renowned NADS-1 driving simulator. The NADS-1 is the most realistic driving simulator in the United States and stands among the best driving simulators in the world due to its ability to recreate the on-road driving experience in a simulated environment. This simulator is used to conduct driving safety research that is too difficult or too unsafe to conduct on roads.

Recently, Dr. Mark R. Rosekind, NHTSA Administrator, toured the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) and got first-hand experience on what it is like to drive the simulator. Dr. Rosekind is a drowsiness specialist and was attending the nation’s first drowsy driving summit at the UI College of Public Health. Dr. Rosekind’s simulator drive exposed him to scenarios that have been specifically designed to conduct drowsy driving research for NHTSA.

NADS is playing an important part in drowsy driving research. One of the core research expertise at NADS involves detecting drowsy driving using data from the sensors that are already built into most vehicles. Staff at NADS have developed sophisticated algorithms that analyze speed and steering data over time and then identify drowsy driving. We have demonstrated that this information can be used to warn the driver up to 6 seconds prior to when are about to drive off the road due to drowsy driving.

This continues a thread of research that originally looked at detecting impaired drivers and then distracted drivers. Recent research has also been conducted to determine if we can simultaneously detect and distinguish drowsy and distracted driving.