The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) intends to negotiate with the University of Iowa for continued government usage of the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) to support research requiring the use of NADS hardware platform, software routines/simulations, and data analysis essential to meeting the agency’s mission.

NHTSA requires continued access to the NADS simulator to conduct human factors data research and collection of data that may relate to issues such as:  the extent to which vehicle handling and braking, vehicle dynamics, advanced vehicle systems, vehicle visibility, and other vehicle characteristics influence driver behavior.  Additionally, NADS is required to study driver performance and response patterns, including possible synergistic effects associated with combinations of advanced technologies and the implications of the findings for systems design.  In addition to providing notice of intent to sole source contract for these services, this notice seeks to identify any potential qualified Small Business (SB), Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), 8(a) Certified SDB, HUBZone SB, VOSB SDVOSB, or WOSB concerns that may be interested in and capable of performing the work described herein.

NHTSA welcomes all qualified Small Business concerns, with the appropriate NAICS Code and past experience to submit their Corporate Capability Statements that demonstrate their ability to successfully accomplish the goals of the project as listed below.  NHTSA does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses to this notice or otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted.  Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made; no formal evaluation of the information received will be conducted by NHTSA.  NHTSA may; however later on issue a Request for Proposals (RFP).  However, should such a requirement fail to materialize, no basis for claims against NHTSA shall arise as a result of a response to this notice.

Background:

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 other economic costs.  The agency develops, promotes, and implements effective educational, engineering, and enforcement programs with the goal of ending vehicle crash tragedies and reducing economic costs associated with vehicle use and highway travel.  The various program offices located within NHTSA conduct extensive research, development, testing, crash investigation, and data collection and analysis activities to provide the scientific basis needed to support the agency’s motor vehicle and traffic safety goals.

In an effort to improve NHTSA’s ability to evaluate driver behavior and performance, the agency built a high fidelity driving simulator at the University of Iowa (Iowa) that is committed to the performance of research on wheeled highway vehicles such as automobiles and heavy vehicles.  This simulator became known as the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS). Accordingly, on March 19, 1993, a Cooperative Agreement was entered into between NHTSA and the University of Iowa (Iowa) to build and later govern NHTSA’s shared use of said device.

While working under subsequent Cooperative Agreements, the NADS device, henceforth became known as NADS-1, and fully operational in January 2002.  The NADS is physically located at the University of Iowa’s Research Park in Iowa City, Iowa.  Subsequently, the University developed a fixed-based simulator for software development and testing that does not require the full range of motion provided by the original simulator.   This fixed-based simulator is referred to as NADS-2.   Additionally, the University of Iowa developed a third computer-based simulator, the MiniSim; which is a desktop simulator that can be used to review test scenarios or perform low-fidelity data collection.  Presently, all 3 pieces of equipment are made available to NHTSA through sole source Contracts since a determination was made that these services should be procured via Contract instead of Cooperative Agreement.  NHTSA continues to negotiate terms and conditions with University of Iowa for their use and the building where these simulators are housed being owned by the University. The continued use of these unique simulators is vital to NHTSA’s research and development for testing purposes. Collectively, NADS-1, NADS-2, and MiniSim are referred to as “NADS” and is needed to support the agency.

Objective:

The objective of this contract is to provide NHTSA continued us