Motor Vehicle Safety

The Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to build a $32 million state-of-the-art driving simulator at the University of Iowa. The simulator, housed in a 50-foot-high experimental bay that can mimic road conditions, will assist in research to reduce the number of deaths, injuries, and economic losses resulting from traffic accidents. It is expected to begin operating in 1996. Although the simulator's benefits cannot now be quantified in terms of lives or dollars saved, DOT believes that the simulator will improve the effectiveness of its vehicle safety, highway construction, and other programs. The simulator will allow a variety of kinds of research that are not possible today, such as measuring the influence of different prescription drug doses on a driver. Current estimates and funding sources for the simulator are sketchy. A better picture of the simulator's cost and performance will be available once the two design contracts are completed in fiscal year 1993. A funding commitment from sources other than DOT has yet to be pinned down, although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has officially asked the private sector to make a financial contribution.

GAO found that: (1) although DOT believes that NADS research will benefit its programs, it cannot quantify NADS benefits in such terms as lives saved, dollars saved, and accidents avoided, since those benefits will accrue from new safety devices and designs; (2) NADS will have a more advanced visual system and a larger and more advanced motion system and will be able to carry out more research than existing driving simulators can; (3) simulation experts believe that the state of the art in simulation is such that there should be no technical risk associated with achieving the physical specifications for NADS; (4) after the design phase, NHTSA will be in a better position to judge whether there are technical risks and whether those risks can be overcome; (5) the $32-million estimate to develop NADS is uncertain since it has not been adjusted to reflect any future cost changes, and is based on a conceptual design that does not identify the specific equipment needed for NADS; (6) as of July 1992, NHTSA was not sure whether it would obtain financial commitments from non-DOT sources for one-third of the NADS cost before its planned design contract date; and (7) as of July 1992, NHTSA and the University of Iowa had not agreed on a plan for allocating NADS operating time among potential users, but the rights of DOT to use NADS would be covered in a cooperative agreement between NHTSA and the University.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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