[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 98 (Tuesday, May 21, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23154-23157]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-10582]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2019-0037]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for 
Comment; Driver Interactions With Advanced Driver Assistance 
Technologies

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

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a proposed collection of 
information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 
announces our intention to request the Office of Management and 
Budget's (OMB) approval of a proposed collection of certain information 
by the Agency. Before a Federal agency can collect certain information 
from the public, it must receive approval from OMB. Procedures 
established under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA) require 
Federal agencies to publish a notice in the Federal Register concerning 
each proposed collection of information and to allow 60 days for

[[Page 23155]]

public comment in response to the notice. The proposed collection of 
information supports research addressing safety-related aspects of 
driver interactions with certain advanced driver assistance 
technologies.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 22, 2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by the docket number in 
the heading of this document or by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on 
the electronic docket site by clicking on ``Help'' or ``FAQ''.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility. M-30, U.S. Department of 
Transportation. 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: U.S Department of Transportation, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 
Washington, DC 20590 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday 
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
    Instructions: Each submission must include the Agency name and the 
Docket number for this Notice. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information provided. Please see the Privacy heading below.
    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 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read comments received, go to 
http://www.regulations.gov, or the street address listed above. Follow 
the online instructions for accessing the dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Mazzae, Applied Crash 
Avoidance Research Division, Vehicle Research and Test Center, NHTSA, 
10820 State Route 347--Bldg. 60, East Liberty, Ohio 43319; Telephone 
(937) 666-4511; Facsimile: (937) 666-3590; email address: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), before an agency submits a proposed collection 
of information to OMB for approval, it must first publish a document in 
the Federal Register providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise 
consult with members of the public and affected agencies concerning 
each proposed collection of information. The OMB has promulgated 
regulations describing what must be included in such a document. Under 
OMB's regulation (at 5 CFR 1320.8(d)), an agency must ask for public 
comment on the following:
    (i) 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;
    (ii) 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;
    (iii) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected;
    (iv) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, 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.
    In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public 
comments on the following proposed collection of information:
    Title: Driver Interactions with Advanced Driver Assistance 
Technologies.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Type of Review Requested: Regular.
    OMB Clearance Number: New Collection.
    Form Number: None.
    Requested Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from date of 
approval.
    Summary of the Collection of Information: NHTSA proposes to perform 
research involving the collection of information from the public as 
part of a multi-year effort to learn about drivers' use of and behavior 
in interacting with certain advanced driver assistance technologies. 
The research will involve on-road, semi-naturalistic driving 
experimentation in which participants who are members of the general 
public will drive government-owned instrumented production vehicles 
equipped with driver assistance technologies. Participants will include 
both drivers with and drivers without experience with advanced cruise 
control and lane keeping assistance technologies. Experienced drivers 
will be ones who own one of the two vehicle models equipped with 
advanced cruise control and lane keeping assistance features being used 
in this research. Participants will engage driver assistance 
technologies, including advanced cruise control and lane keeping 
assistance, while driving a specified route traversing public highways. 
Participants' actions to engage the assistance features and responses 
to unrequested disengagements will be observed and recorded.
    Questions will be asked during the course of the research to assess 
individuals' suitability for study participation, to obtain feedback 
regarding participants' use of the driver assistance technologies, and 
to gauge individuals' level of comfort with and confidence in the 
technologies' performance and safety.
    Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the 
Information: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 
(NHTSA) mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce 
healthcare and other economic costs associated with motor vehicle 
crashes. As driver assistance technologies advance, they have the 
potential to dramatically reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, 
injuries, and associated economic costs. The safety and effectiveness 
of the technologies depends on drivers understanding the capabilities, 
constraints, and visual and auditory alerts provided. Drivers' 
understanding of when assistance features are available to use and when 
they are not or are disengaging is important for safety. In particular, 
drivers must understand and respond quickly when a feature indicates 
that it is disengaging and the driver must retake full manual control 
of driving. This work seeks to gather information regarding how drivers 
who are inexperienced compare to drivers with experience using driver 
assistance features including advanced cruise control and lane keeping 
assistance. The research will compare the two groups' use of these 
features in interactions, response to disengagement notifications, and 
proper use.
    The collection of information will consist of: (1) Question Set 1, 
Driving Research Study Interest Response Form, (2) Question Set 2, 
Screening Questions, (3) passive observation of driving behavior, and 
(4) Question Set 3, Post-Drive Questionnaire.
    The information to be collected will be used for the following 
purposes:
     Question Set 1, Driving Research Study Interest Response 
Form will be used to determine individuals'

[[Page 23156]]

willingness to participate in the study and whether an individual 
qualifies for participation in this study based on certain information, 
such as primary vehicle make/model. For example, participants must:

[cir] Be at least 21 years of age
[cir] Hold a valid U.S. or Canadian driver's license
[cir] Drive at least 14,000 miles annually

Participants must also be willing to provide their contact information 
for the purposes of coordinating participation.

     Question Set 2, Screening Questions will be 
primarily used to ensure that participants meet certain minimum health 
qualifications, are free of recent criminal convictions, and have 
reasonable availability to participate in the study. The objective of 
health screening questions is to identify candidate participants whose 
physical and health conditions may be deemed ``average'' and are 
compatible with being able to drive continuously for approximately 3 
hours a vehicle equipped with only original equipment components.
     Question Set 3, Post-Drive Questionnaire will be 
used to get information about the participants' experiences during the 
experimental drive, including the difficulty of using the automated 
system, trust in the automated system, incidences of mode confusion, 
and any safety considerations related to the system. There will be two 
versions of the questionnaire: One for participants who do not have 
experience with one of two study vehicle models equipped with advanced 
cruise control and lane keeping assistance prior to the study, and one 
for participants do have experience with these features in one of the 
two study vehicle models. The experienced participant questionnaire 
will include additional questions addressing individuals' personal 
experience with the driver assistance feature technologies in their 
personal vehicle and, for participants who drive a study vehicle model 
that is different from their personal vehicle, their opinions regarding 
differences between the two vehicles' driver assistance feature driver 
interface implementations and any difficulties using those features in 
the vehicle with which they were not experienced prior to the study.
    Affected Public (Respondents): Research participants will be 
licensed drivers aged 25-54 years who drive at least 14,000 miles 
annually, are in good health, and do not require assistive devices to 
safely operate a vehicle and drive continuously for a period of 3 
hours.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: Information will be collected in 
an incremental fashion to permit the determination of which individuals 
have the necessary characteristics for study participation. All 
interested candidates will complete Question Set 1, Driving Research 
Study Interest Response Form. A subset of individuals meeting the 
criteria for Question Set 1 will be asked to complete Question Set 2, 
Screening Questions. From the individuals found to meet the criteria 
for both Questions sets 1 and 2, a subset will be chosen with the goal 
of achieving a sample providing a balance of age and sex to be 
scheduled for study participation. A summary of the estimated numbers 
of individuals that will complete the noted question sets is provided 
in the following table.

                     Estimated Number of Respondents
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Questions                             Total N
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question Set 1, Driving Research Study Interest Response           1,000
 Form...................................................
Question Set 2, Screening Questions.....................             600
Question Set 3, Post-Drive Questionnaire................             300
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Time per Response: Completion of Question Set 1, Driving 
Research Study Interest Response Form is estimated to take 
approximately 5 minutes and completion is estimated to take 
approximately 7 minutes for Question Set 2, Screening Questions. 
Completion of Question Set 3, Post-Drive Questionnaire is estimated to 
take 15 minutes per inexperienced participant and 20 minutes per 
experienced participant. The estimated annual time and cost burdens are 
summarized in the table below. The number of respondents and time to 
complete each question set are estimated as shown in the table. The 
time per question set is calculated by multiplying the number of 
respondents by the time per respondent and then converting from minutes 
to hours. The hour value for each question set is multiplied by the 
latest average hour earning estimate from the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics to obtain an estimated burden cost per question set.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Feb. 2019 Average Hourly Earnings 
data for ``Total Private,'' $27.66 (Accessed 3/8/2019 at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t19.htm).

                                                       Estimated Time per Response and Total Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                             Time per
             Question set                        Question topic            Participants      response       Total time      Total time      Total cost
                                                                                             (minutes)       (minutes)        (hours)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1....................................  Driving Research Study Interest             1,000               5           5,000           83.33       $2,304.91
                                        Response Form.
2....................................  Screening Questions..............             600               7           4,200            37.5        1,936.20
3....................................  Post-Drive Questionnaire,                     150              15           2,250              50         1037.25
                                        Inexperienced.
                                       Post-Drive Questionnaire,                     150              20           3,000              75        1,383.00
                                        Experienced.
                                                                         -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total Estimated Burden...........  .................................  ..............          14,450          240.83        6,661.36
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 23157]]

    Total Estimated Annual Burden: 240.83 hours.
    Frequency of Collection: The data collection described will be 
performed once to obtain the target number of valid test participants.

    Authority:  The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. 
chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.95.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on May 14, 2019.
Tim J. Johnson,
Acting Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety Research.
[FR Doc. 2019-10582 Filed 5-20-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-59-P