[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 219 (Thursday, November 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71987-71989]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-24951]


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NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

[Docket No. NHTSA-2020-0102]


Request for Information: Impaired Driving Technologies

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

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: This notice requests information from interested parties to 
help inform the agency on available or late stage technology under 
development for impaired driving detection and mitigation. It also 
fulfills the Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the Further 
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, Public Law 116-94 (2020), which 
directs NHTSA to facilitate the sharing of information and the 
implementation and integration of impaired driving technology across 
the automotive industry.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 11, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by the docket number in 
the heading of this document or by using any of the following methods:
     Electronic submissions: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
     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.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    Instructions: Comments submitted to the docket should not include 
any sensitive personal information or confidential business 
information. Each submission must include the Agency name and the 
Docket number for this Notice. Note that all comments submitted to the 
docket, will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov 
including any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act 
heading below.
    If you wish to voluntarily submit confidential business 
information, you should submit two copies of your

[[Page 71988]]

complete submission electronically to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the 
address given below under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, with one 
copy containing the information you claim to be confidential business 
information, and one copy from which the claimed confidential business 
information has been deleted. In addition, you should submit one copy, 
from which you have deleted the claimed confidential business 
information, to Docket Management at the address given above under 
ADDRESSES. When you send a comment containing information claimed to be 
confidential business information to the Chief Counsel, you should 
follow the procedures set forth in 49 CFR part 512, and include a cover 
letter setting forth the information specified in our confidential 
business information regulation, along with the certification required 
by the regulation. 49 CFR part 512. In addition, you must clearly mark 
the top of each page of a document containing confidential business 
information with the word ``CONFIDENTIAL.''
     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. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call 202-366-
9322 before coming. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Ritter, Office of Impaired 
Driving and Occupant Protection Division, Office of Research and 
Program Development, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, NPD-100, Room W44-243, Washington, DC 20590. 
Mr. Ritter's phone number is 202-493-0019, and his email address is 
[email protected].To submit confidential business information to 
the Chief Counsel: Daniel Rabinovitz, Office of Chief Counsel, National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration (NHTSA) entered into a Cooperative Agreement with the 
Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS)--representing the 
majority of automobile manufacturers--to assess and develop alcohol 
detection technologies that prevent the operation of a vehicle when the 
driver's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeds the legal limit. 
This collaborative research partnership is known as the Driver Alcohol 
Detection System for Safety (DADSS) program. Over the years, the DADSS 
program made progressive improvements in the development of two in-
vehicle technologies that target measuring breath or blood alcohol 
levels and could help prevent alcohol-impaired drivers from operating 
their vehicles: A breath-based and a touch-based system. As the DADSS 
technology progressed, NHTSA also became aware of some market-based 
driver monitoring systems, some of which may also play a role in 
addressing safety risks associated with impaired driving.
    NHTSA is interested in better understanding the state of 
technologies in impaired driving detection and mitigation, particularly 
those targeting alcohol-impaired driving.
    Request for Information: This notice requests information to inform 
NHTSA about the capabilities, limitations, and maturity of currently 
available technologies or those under advanced stages of development 
that target impaired driving. The Joint Explanatory Statement 
accompanying the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, Public 
Law 116-94 (2020), requires NHTSA to facilitate the sharing of this 
information and the implementation and integration of impaired driving 
technology across the automotive industry. NHTSA plans to conduct 
further research on such technologies. To ensure a comprehensive review 
of these technologies, NHTSA requests interested parties to submit 
information to the Agency on related technologies that are being 
researched, developed, or marketed. More specifically, NHTSA seeks 
information about technologies that can detect degrees of driver 
impairment through a range of approaches including (1) technologies 
that can monitor driver action, activity, behavior, or responses, such 
as vehicle movements during lane keeping, erratic control, or sudden 
maneuvers; (2) technologies that can directly monitor driver impairment 
(e.g., breath, touch-based detection through skin); (3) technologies 
that can monitor a driver's physical characteristics, such as eye 
tracking or other measures of impairment; and (4) technologies or 
sensors that aim direct measurement of a driver's physiological 
indicators that are already linked to forms of impaired driving (e.g., 
BAC level for alcohol-impaired driving).
    NHTSA is interested in information about product specifications; 
impairment measurement metrics, methods, and systems; impairment 
classification approaches and capabilities; availability of test 
results and data that support system capabilities and limitations; 
advanced sensors; and other technologies that could be used in a 
vehicle to detect impaired drivers.
    Input is also requested about whether and how systems have been 
validated to date, including human factors issues and user acceptance 
of proposed approaches. Further, NHTSA requests information on the 
range of active intervention these technologies are targeted to support 
in vehicles based on the type and level of impairment estimated, or 
measured, by the system with respect to the system's confidence in such 
assessment.
    Responses most useful to NHTSA would include specific information 
about the product capabilities and limitations, the state of its 
development, its availability and/or current uses. Examples of useful 
information include vendor contact information; information related to 
product's marketed capabilities; a description of the approach the 
technology uses to detect, estimate, or measure driver impairment; 
product specifications, including physical dimensions, accuracy, 
tolerance limits, performance characteristics such as temperature 
limitations, vehicle integration feasibility, and part-life in the 
automotive environment; closest Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the 
technology based on best practices described in the General Accounting 
Office Technology Readiness Assessment Guide (https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/703694.pdf); any publicly shareable information related to 
the cost ranges for the unit, its installation, as well as lifetime 
maintenance; any data related to studies that targeted usability and 
user acceptance; known technology defeat strategies users may employ; 
and impairment detection and impairment differentiation capabilities 
(alcohol-impaired, drug-impaired, distracted, drowsy, etc.), including 
false-positive and false-negative detection rates. Additionally, NHTSA 
would like to know how existing technologies have been evaluated in 
laboratory or field tests or in operational deployments and how 
positive impairment data was utilized in those studies.
    NHTSA encourages commenters to provide information in common file

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formats, such as Microsoft Word, pdf, or plain text and limit responses 
to no more than 10 pages, not including appendices.

    Authority: 23 U.S.C. 403.

    Issued in Washington, DC, under authority delegated by 49 CFR 
1.95 and 49 CFR 501.8.
Nanda Narayanan Srinivasan,
Associate Administrator, Research and Program Development.
[FR Doc. 2020-24951 Filed 11-10-20; 8:45 am]
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