Advanced Safety Research

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). NHTSA’s mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce traffic-related health care and economic costs. The agency develops, promotes, and implements effective educational, engineering, and enforcement programs to reduce vehicle crash-related fatalities and injuries.

The Electronic Systems Safety Division conducts research, testing, and analysis to evaluate how vehicle electronic subsystems impact vehicle safety and to identify countermeasures to mitigate safety risks.

NHTSA’s research portfolio includes work related to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Automated Driving Systems (ADS), and vehicle cybersecurity. These efforts aim to advance the safe development, testing, and deployment of vehicle safety technologies while addressing emerging risks such as driver distraction, system reliability, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

This research complements efforts undertaken by industry, academia, and other government agencies and is intended to advance the state of knowledge and support data-driven safety decision-making.

NHTSA with the capability to issue task orders requiring a wide range of research and technical support services related to vehicle safety technologies.

Work under this contract may include:

• Planning, conducting, and documenting vehicle safety research studies


• Testing and evaluation of ADAS and ADS technologies


• Simulation and modeling of vehicle systems and driver behavior


• Vehicle component testing and functional safety assessments


• On-road testing and naturalistic driving studies


• Safety impact assessments and data analysis


• Cybersecurity research and evaluation


• Application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to vehicle safety