[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 111 (Thursday, June 9, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37238-37239]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-13665]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2015-0002]


3D Surrogate Vehicle Scanning Event

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

ACTION: Announcement of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: NHTSA is announcing a public meeting to seek stakeholder 
feedback on a full-size 3-dimensional surrogate vehicle being developed 
to better support the evaluation of advanced crash avoidance 
technologies. NHTSA, Euro NCAP, Thatcham, and the Insurance Institute 
for Highway Safety (IIHS) have been collaboratively working to develop 
this surrogate; however, confirmation that it appears as realistic to 
the sensors used in automotive safety systems requires feedback from 
industry experts.

DATES: NHTSA will hold the public meeting July 13-14, 2016, in East 
Liberty, OH. Each day the meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. and continue 
until 5:00 p.m., local time. Check-in will begin at 8:00 a.m. All 
attendees for the meeting are required to register by following the 
instructions under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT no later than June 
24, 2016. Admission onto the facility will not be permitted without 
advanced registration.
    Following the event, participants are requested to submit all 
written feedback and supporting information pertaining to their 3D 
surrogate vehicle measurements no later than August 5, 2016.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held on the test track at the 
Transportation Research Center, Inc., 10820 SR 347, East Liberty, OH 
43319.
    Written Comments: Written feedback and supporting information 
should be submitted not later than August 5, 2016, by any of the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West 
Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 
9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
     Fax: 202-366-1767.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without 
change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below.
    Docket: For access to the docket go to http://www.regulations.gov 
at any time or to 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, Ground 
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. Telephone: 202-
366-9826.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78), or you may visit 
http://www.regulations.gov/privacy.html.
    Confidential Business Information: If you wish to submit any 
information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three 
copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim 
to be confidential business information to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, 
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Washington, DC 20590. In addition, you should 
submit two copies, from which you have deleted the claimed confidential 
business information, to Docket Management at the address given above. 
When you send a comment containing information claimed to be 
confidential business information, you should submit a cover letter 
setting forth the information specified in our confidential business 
information regulation (49 CFR part 512).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Attendees should register at http://goo.gl/forms/C6tj0oRj1QlS4qNy2 not later than June 24, 2016. Admission 
onto the facility will not be permitted without advanced registration. 
Should it be necessary to cancel the meeting due to inclement weather 
or other emergency, NHTSA will take available measures to notify 
registered participants. If you have questions about the public 
meeting, please contact [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To date, multiple iterative efforts have 
been made to produce a 3D surrogate vehicle that not only emulates a 
passenger car from any approach angle, but one that can be safely and 
repeatedly struck by an actual light or heavy vehicle without harm. In 
Europe, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers were presented with two 
opportunities to measure the appearance of multiple surrogate designs 
during similar test events hosted by Thatcham in the UK. The feedback 
received from these companies has been invaluable, and has helped 
refine the surrogate to its current characteristics.
    On July 13-14, 2016, NHTSA will be hosting a U.S.-based test event 
featuring the most recent iteration of the collaboratively-developed 3D 
surrogate vehicle and up to two robotic platforms (the surrogate 
vehicle is secured to a shallow self-propelled robotic platform to 
facilitate accurate longitudinal and lateral movement during testing). 
During this two-day meeting, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers will 
have an opportunity to measure the appearance of the 3D surrogate 
vehicle from multiple approach angles using vehicle-based sensors 
(e.g., radar, lidar, cameras, etc.). Feedback from the first day of 
testing will be used to make adjustments to the surrogate ahead of the 
second day's tests. Results from the second testing day will be used to 
help finalize the surrogate's design. The stated goal is to identify a 
final design by December 2016.
    Feedback from the participants will be beneficial in finalizing the 
design of the surrogate. Meeting participants will have the opportunity 
to provide results from the measurements collected with their 
respective test equipment, and to provide specific recommendations 
about how the surrogate vehicle's appearance, to any sensor, could be 
improved. When providing these recommendations, participants are asked 
to consider the balance between realism and practicality. While it is 
very important the surrogate look as realistic as possible, it must 
also remain strikeable from any approach angle, over a broad range of 
impact speeds, without affecting the safety of those using it or 
harming the vehicle being evaluated.

Draft Agenda (in local time)

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

08:00-09:00 Arrival/Check-In
09:00-09:30 Brief presentations describing the need for 3D surrogate

[[Page 37239]]

vehicles, and development efforts to date.
09:30-09:45 Descriptions of the event test layout and choreography
09:45-12:00 Morning testing
12:00-13:00 Lunch break
13:00-16:00 Afternoon testing
16:00-17:00 Discuss the day's testing. Agree on what changes are to be 
made ahead of the next day's evaluations.
17:00 Adjourn

Thursday, July 14, 2016

08:00-08:30 Arrival/Check-In
08:30-12:00 Morning testing
12:00-13:00 Lunch break
13:00-15:30 Afternoon testing
15:30-17:00 Discuss preliminary results from the event's testing and 
how the results will be collected, consolidated, and disseminated.
17:00 Adjourn

Public Meeting Topics

    Discussions pertaining to the 3D surrogate vehicle will be focused 
on what features, if any, will need to be adjusted to allow it to 
appear realistic to automotive sensing systems. NHTSA does not intend 
to discuss how it may use 3D surrogate vehicles beyond inclusion is its 
research programs.
    Surrogate vehicle feedback forms will be available on-site, and 
will request information about, but not be limited to, the following 
topics:
    1. Are the radar return characteristics of the surrogate, including 
radar cross section (RCS), adequately realistic from each approach 
angle, depth, and height relative to the ground?
    2. Are the visual characteristics, including the overall shape, 
reflectivity, contrasting features, of the surrogate adequately 
realistic?
    3. Is the surrogate able to adequately support lidar-based safety 
systems?
    4. Is the presence of the robotic platform beneath the surrogate 
apparent to the automotive sensing system (radar, visual, etc.)? If so, 
what effect will the platform's presence expected to have on safety 
system performance?
    5. How consistent is the classification of the surrogate (e.g., 
distance to the surrogate at which the safety system classifies the 
surrogate as being an actual vehicle, and does the classification 
remain stable during the test vehicle's approach to the surrogate). How 
does this consistency compare to that expected by the overall light 
vehicle population? What effect does the panel misalignment have on 
surrogate classification?
    6. From an industry perspective, what is the preferred rank order 
of the following: absolute surrogate vehicle realism, strikeablity/
durability, or ease of reassembly?

    Issued in Washington, DC, under authority delegated by 49 CFR 
1.95.
Nathaniel Beuse,
Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety Research.
[FR Doc. 2016-13665 Filed 6-8-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-59-P