Exploratory Advanced Research . . . Next Generation Transportation Solutions

tics to expected on-road performance,” continues 

Monk. “Using this approach will enable the team to 

address the overwhelming variety of road situations 

and simulator configurations.”

Driving Simulators: Technical Approach

Making driving simulators useful for highway designers requires a system-orientated approach to the design issues that highway engineers face. This project 

begins with the design issue, relates simulator capabilities to these issues, and recognizes that simulator 

choice depends on the operational and budgetary 

demands of the engineering context. The project 

team began by gathering input from roadway designers to aid in defining necessary simulator characteristics. The next steps will be building common scenarios in a range of simulators so the team can collect 

data to compare driver performance in a range of 

simulators to existing on-road performance data. Finally, the team will develop model-based transformations for relating simulator and on-road data. Multiple, 

converging methods will be applied to assess how 

the research improves highway engineers’ use of 

driving simulators.

Simulation Challenges 

According to the team, a fundamental challenge of 

this project is its overwhelming scope. “A general understanding of how driver performance in simulators 

relates to situations experienced in the real world 

represents one of the ‘grand challenges’ of driving 

performance research,” explains Monk. This project 

provides engineers with a method to match simulator 

capabilities to design issues. Not all simulators can be 

used to address all design issues—some issues cannot be addressed with simulation at all. The Iowa 

team is addressing this issue by developing a matrix 

that relates design issues to appropriate simulator 

platforms and providing engineers with a method to 

transform simulator results to match on-road data. 

The Exploratory Advanced Research Program Fact Sheet

The State of Simulation 

The project team believes that whereas existing simulators are valuable research and highway design tools, 

they are under utilized because of concerns about the 

sometimes weak relationship between simulator data 

and on-road data. There is also significant concern 

about the reliability of simulator data, given that different simulators often produce differing results for similar scenarios and design situations. “There is a problem of mistrust in driving simulators because 

simulator-based studies frequently produce results 

that do not match driver performance on actual roads, 

and even conflicting results at times,” explains Chris 

Monk at FHWA. “This project aims to provide a systematic, design-centered approach to matching simulator 

data to on-road data and between simulators, filling a 

longstanding knowledge gap recognized by the driving simulation research community. This is the kind of 

persistent challenge faced by a research community 

that can be addressed by the EAR Program. The project is ambitious in its goal to produce mathematical 

transformation functions relating simulator characterisI

t is often difficult for highway and traffic engineers to consider complex driver behavior 

in their designs, but failing to do so can cost 

lives and, if roadways must be rebuilt, millions 

of dollars. The aim of “Making Driving Simulators More Useful for Behavioral Research,” an 

Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program project, is to make driving simulators a 

more reliable tool for highway engineers. The 

32-month study, launched by the Federal 

Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2009, is 

being conducted by the University of Iowa. 

Driving Simulation Forward 

Making Driving Simulators More Useful for Behavioral Research
Future Efforts

“Technological advances are quickly changing the nature of driving,” says Monk. “These changes can have 

either positive or negative effects on traffic safety, driver acceptance, and transportation efficiency. To strive 

towards technology having a positive effect, experiments are needed to investigate the impact of technologies on driver and roadway safety. These experiments are often only possible in a driving simulator.” 

The Iowa team’s goal is to make simulators more practical and useful for design by creating a system to select simulators and reconcile their results. “The outcomes of this project will help researchers to identify 

and support a range of simulator applications, including vehicle safety system design, highway design evaluations, vehicle driver assessment , and training,” continues Monk. “The transformation functions that 

reconcile simulator data will be a significant step forward in understanding the perceptual and motor control processes that govern driving performance.”

Learn More

For more information on this EAR Program project, 

contact Chris Monk at FHWA, 202-493-3365 (email: 

chris.monk@dot.gov).

What Is the Exploratory 

Advanced Research Program?

FHWA’s Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) 

Program focuses on long-term, high-risk research with a high payoff potential. The program addresses underlying gaps faced by applied highway research programs, anticipates 

emerging issues with national implications, 

and reflects broad transportation industry 

goals and objectives.

To learn more about the EAR Program, 

visit the Exploratory Advanced Research Web 

site at www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch. 

The site features information on research solicitations, updates on ongoing research, links 

to published materials, summaries of past EAR 

Program events, and details on upcoming 

events. For additional information, contact David Kuehn at FHWA, 202-493-3414 (email: david.kuehn@fhwa.dot.gov), or Terry Halkyard at 

FHWA, 202-493-3467 (email: terry.halkyard@

fhwa.dot.gov). 

Publication No. 

FHWA-HRT-10-060

HRTM-04/06-10(1M)E

Driving Simulation Forward 

Making Driving Simulators More Useful for Behavioral Research

Image other side: 

“Night drive in the city”

Photo credit: www.istockphoto.

com/narvikk