[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 100 (Wednesday, May 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28436-28438]
[FR Doc No: 2021-11150]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2021-0013]

Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Automated
Driving Systems 2.0 A Vision for Safety

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a request for approval of an
extension of a currently-approved information collection.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA),
this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR)
abstracted below will be forwarded to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR describes the nature of
the information collection and its expected burden. This is a request
for an extension of a currently-approved information collection. This
document describes the collection of information for which NHTSA seeks
OMB extension approval, titled ``Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A
Vision for Safety'' and identified by OMB Control Number 2127-0723,
which is currently approved through May 31, 2021. The burden hour
calculations have been adjusted to reflect a reduction in burden as
well as a reduction in the frequency of response resulting in a total
annual burden hour reduction from 86,100 hours to 12,000 hours. A
Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting
comments on the information collection was published on March 9, 2021.
NHTSA received three comments to this notice, two of which were
generally supportive of the information collection. The third comment
addressed accessibility of ADS-equipped vehicles. None of the comments
addressed burden hours or cost estimates.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before June 25, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection, including suggestions for reducing burden,
should be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget at
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. To find this particular information
collection, select ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for Public
Comment'' or use the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or access
to background documents, contact Debbie Sweet, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; Telephone<PHONE_NUMBER>; Fax: (202)
366-2106; email address<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Please identify the
relevant collection of information by referring to its OMB Control
Number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), a
Federal agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) before it collects certain information from the public and
a person is not required to respond to a collection of information by a
Federal agency unless the collection displays a valid OMB control
number. In compliance with these requirements, this notice announces
the following information collection request will be submitted to OMB.
    Title: Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety.
    OMB Control Number: 2127-0723.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently-approved information
collection.
    Length of Approval Requested: Three years.
    Summary of the Collection of Information: In September 2017, NHTSA
published a policy document titled Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A
Vision for Safety (ADS 2.0). Recognizing the potential that Automated
Driving Systems (ADSs) have to enhance safety and mobility, this policy
document set out an approach to enable the safe deployment of Automated
Driving Systems (SAE Automation Levels 3 through 5--Conditional, High,
and Full Automation Systems as defined in SAE J3016).\1\
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    \1\ For more information about SAE J3016, see https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j3016_201806
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    Consistent with its statutory purpose to reduce traffic crashes and
deaths and injuries resulting from traffic crashes,\2\ NHTSA has
recommended disclosure of information via a Voluntary Safety Self-
Assessment (VSSA) related to ADS technologies by vehicle manufacturers
and other entities as described in ADS 2.0. In the section of ADS 2.0
titled, ``Voluntary Guidance for Automated Driving systems'' (hereafter
referred to as ``Voluntary Guidance''), NHTSA recommended that
manufacturers and other entities assess their ADS-equipped vehicle
against specific safety elements, summarize that assessment, and then
voluntarily disclose that summary to the public.\3\ The Voluntary
Guidance outlines recommended best practices, many of which should be
commonplace in the industry, for the safe pre-deployment design,
development, and testing of ADSs prior to commercial sale or operation
on public roads.
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    \2\ 49 U.S.C. 30101.
    \3\ https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/13069a-ads2.0_090617_v9a_tag.pdf.
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    Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the
Information: To assist States and the public in understanding how
safety is being considered by manufacturers and other entities
developing and testing ADSs, NHTSA has encouraged disclosures that aid
in that mission. The burden estimates contained in this notice are
based on the Agency's understanding of the ADS market and the time
associated with generating a self-assessment and voluntarily making a
summary of that self-assessment public. The estimates in this notice
are adjustments from the previous information collection request (ICR)
demonstrating a decrease in the burden-hour estimate.
    The manner by which NHTSA encourages ADS manufacturers and other
entities to disclose information is through a VSSA. The VSSA summarizes
how the manufacturer or other entity has considered the safety elements
contained in the Voluntary Guidance as shown below:

 System Safety
 Operational Design Domain
 Object and Event Detection and Response
 Fallback (Minimal Risk Condition)
 Validation Methods
 Human Machine Interface
 Vehicle Cybersecurity
 Crashworthiness
 Post-Crash ADS Behavior
 Data Recording
 Consumer Education and Training
 Federal, State and Local Laws

    The Agency believes the work associated with consideration of the
safety element in the Voluntary Guidance to be an extension of good and
safe engineering practices already in place. It therefore believes that
manufacturers and other entities will have access to all the
information needed to craft a VSSA that discusses how the safety
elements were considered and, if they choose, release a summary of that
assessment publicly. Of the manufacturers and other entities who
voluntarily disclose this information, NHTSA anticipates that most
manufacturers and other entities will post the VSSAs online. As of
December 28, 2020, NHTSA was aware of 26 VSSAs, all available online.

    The safety elements are fully described in the Voluntary Guidance
section (section 1) of ADS 2.0, as is the VSSA. The VSSA (including the
public release of that summary assessment) is intended to communicate
to the public (particularly States and consumers) that entities are (1)
considering the safety aspects of ADSs; (2) communicating and
collaborating with DOT; (3) encouraging the self-establishment of
industry safety norms for ADSs; and (4) building public trust,
acceptance, and confidence through transparent testing and deployment
of ADSs.
    60-Day Notice: A Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting comments on the information collection was published
on March 9, 2021 (86 FR 13602). The Agency received three comments on
this notice. Two comments, one from Locomation and one from the
California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) were generally supportive
of the information collection. Locomation stated that it ``applauds
NHTSA work to provide voluntary data sharing platforms to improve the
public's understanding'' and believes the information collection should
be extended for these activities. The California Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) stated it was
``pleased to submit these comments expressing [their] support for
extending the VSSA as a method to collect information from Automated
Driving System (ADS) developers about their development of the
technology.'' The third comment, from an individual, addressed
accessibility in ADS-equipped vehicles, but did not provide any
specific comments about this information collection. None of the
comments addressed burden hours or cost estimates.
    Affected Public: Entities involved in the testing and deployment of
ADSs.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 20.
    NHTSA estimates that there will be, on average, 20 respondents a
year.
    Frequency: On Occasion (based on information from the current
information collection, respondents are expected to respond, on
average, once every three years).
    Number of Responses: 20.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 12,000 hours.
    NHTSA is using the number of entities that have received permits
from the State of California as surrogate for the number of respondents
that may choose to develop and issue a VSSA. As of December 28, 2020,
California has cumulatively issued permits to 58 entities to test
Automated Driving Systems with drivers present, five of those entities
also received permits to test without a driver present, and one entity
(included on both other lists) has a permit to deploy.\4\ At the onset
of the current information collection, California had issued permits to
45 entities as of November 16, 2017, but NHTSA had expected the number
to grow to 60 entities within the three years of the information
collection, assuming an addition of new entrants. For that reason, the
burden hours and cost were calculated based on 60 respondents. NHTSA
expects the number of potential respondents to remain at approximately
60 given the coordinated efforts of some companies on the list, the
departure of some of those entities from the industry (departures were
not prevalent in 2017 as the industry was new), and accounting for new
entrants. As a point of reference, since the previous ICR was approved,
NHTSA is aware of 26 published VSSAs. Given that only 26 VSSAs have
been published in three years compared to the 58 actively-permitted
entities in California, NHTSA believes that 60 respondents is an
appropriate high-end estimate for total respondents. However, based on
observations of the current information, NHTSA estimates that
respondents will only produce and disclose a new VSSA once every three
years. Therefore, NHTSA has revised its burden calculations to reflect
estimates based on 20 respondents each year.
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    \4\ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-industry-services/autonomous-vehicles/autonomous-vehicle-testing-permit-holders/.
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    Components of the Voluntary Guidance in ADS 2.0 and public
disclosure of the VSSA have not changed since release in 2017. NHTSA
expects the industry burden of addressing safety elements in the
Voluntary Guidance to be comprised of efforts entities would already
incur in normal business operation and existing documentation. While
the previous ICR calculated burden hours associated with a potential
increase in analysis and review in order to develop the VSSA, NHTSA has
since determined there to be no increased documentation citing how an
entity addressed the safety elements in the Voluntary Guidance. NHTSA
does not believe that any entity is documenting its safety efforts
solely for the purpose of the VSSA and public disclosure. Therefore,
NHTSA reduced the estimation of burden hours by 835 burden hours per
respondent per year from the previous ICR.
    Development and disclosure of a VSSA is expected to involve burden
for format, content, and summary, varying by safety element. NHTSA
estimates that each entity will spend approximately 600 hours to
develop and disseminate a VSSA. This estimate of burden is comprised of
efforts to transmit information from the existing format (520 hours for
development) into a summary format that would be consumable by the
public, including data translation, analysis, and discussion of
traditionally technical information (80 hours to summarize).
    The total estimated burden hours for a single VSSA is calculated as
600 hours for each of the 20 respondents. The total burden hours per
year is estimated at 12,000 hours, a reduction from the 86,100 hours in
the previous ICR.
    In summary, NHTSA estimates the total burden associated with
disclosure recommendations via a VSSA would be 600 hours per respondent
with 20 respondents submitting information each year. The frequency of
responding is once every three years; therefore, NHTSA estimates there
will be a total of 60 unique responders over the course of the next
three years.
    The burden hours associated with development of a VSSA are detailed
in the tables below.

      Table 1--Burden Hours Estimates for VSSA, per Safety Element
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    Safety element in voluntary      Burden hours for   Burden hours for
             guidance                VSSA development     VSSA summary
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A. System Safety..................                 20                 10
B. Operational Design Domain......                 20                  5
C. Object and Event Detection and                  40                  5
 Response.........................

D. Fallback.......................                 80                 10
E. Validation Methods.............                 80                 10
F. Human Machine Interface........                 20                  5
G. Vehicle Cybersecurity..........                 20                  5
H. Crashworthiness................                 20                  5
I. Post-Crash ADS Behavior........                 20                  5
J. Data Recording.................                 80                 10
K. Consumer Education and Training                 40                  5
L. Federal, State, and Local Laws.                 80                  5
                                   -------------------------------------
    Total Burden Hours per ADS....                520                 80
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               Table 2--Calculation of Annual Burden Hours
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Estimated Number of Respondents Annually....  20.
Estimated Burden Hours for Voluntary          520 hours.
 Assessment Development.
Estimated Burden Hours for Summarizing        80 hours.
 Information.
                                             ---------------------------
    Total Burden Hours per Respondent.......  600 hours.
                                             ---------------------------
        Total Estimated Burden Hours for      12,000 hours.
         Industry per Year.
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    NHTSA estimates the hourly cost associated with preparing VSSAs to
be $97.36 \5\ per hour using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' mean
hourly wage estimate for architectural and engineering managers in the
motor vehicle manufacturing industry (Standard Occupational
Classification #11-9041). Therefore, the total estimated annual burden
to each respondent is $58,416 (600 hours x $97.36 = $58,416).
Therefore, the total estimated labor costs to all respondents to this
collection is $1,168,320.
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    \5\ The hourly wage is estimated to be $68.35 per hour. National
Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates NAICS
336100--Motor Vehicle Manufacturing, May 2019, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_336100.htm, last accessed June 30, 2020. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that wages represent 70.2
percent of total compensation to private workers, on average.
Therefore, NHTSA estimates the total hourly compensation cost to be
$97.36.
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: NHTSA does not anticipate any
further burden to respondents beyond the labor costs associated with
the burden hours.

Public Comments Invited

    You are asked to comment on any aspect of this information
collection, including (a) whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways for the department to
enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses without reducing the quality of the collected
information.

    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29.

Cem Hatipoglu,
Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety Research.
[FR Doc. 2021-11150 Filed 5-25-21; 8:45 am]
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