[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 163 (Thursday, August 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47719-47721]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-18420]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket Number NHTSA-2021-0058]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for 
Comments; Event Data Recorders

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

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a request for approval.

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SUMMARY: NHTSA invites public comments about our intention to request 
approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an 
information collection currently in use. Before a Federal agency can 
collect certain information from the public, it must receive approval 
from OMB. Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995, before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit 
public comment on proposed collections of information, including 
extensions and reinstatements of previously approved collections. This 
document describes a collection of information on event data recorders 
(EDRs) for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB approval. The information 
collection currently does not have an OMB control number.

DATES: Written comments should be submitted by October 25, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by Docket No. NHTSA-
2021-0058] through one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
     Mail or Hand Delivery: Docket Management Facility, U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except on Federal holidays. To be sue someone is there 
to help you, please call 202-366-9322 before coming.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number for this notice. 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 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 https://www.transportation.gov/privacy.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the street 
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets via internet.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or access 
to background documents, contact Carla Rush, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE, West Building, Room W43-417, NRM-100, Washington, DC 20590. 
Telephone number: 202-366-1810.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), before an agency submits a proposed 
collection of

[[Page 47720]]

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: (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) how to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) 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 for which 
the agency is seeking approval from OMB.
    Title: Event Data Recorders.
    OMB Control Number: New.
    Type of Request: Approval of an existing collection in use without 
an OMB Control Number.
    Type of Review Requested: Regular.
    Requested Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from the date of 
approval.
    Summary of the Collection of Information: 49 CFR part 563, Event 
Data Recorders, specifies uniform, national requirements for vehicles 
voluntarily equipped with EDRs concerning the collection, storage, and 
retrievability of onboard motor vehicle crash event data. More 
specifically it requires voluntarily installed EDRs in vehicles with a 
gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 3,855 kilograms (8,500 pounds) or 
less to:
     Record 15 essential data elements;
     Record up to 30 additional data elements if the vehicle is 
equipped to record these elements;
     Record these data elements in a standardized format, with 
specifications for range, accuracy, resolution, sampling rate, 
recording duration, and filter class;
     Function after full-scale vehicle crash tests specified in 
FMVSS Nos. 208 and 214; and
     Have the capacity to record two events in a multi-event 
crash.
    In addition, Part 563 requires vehicle manufacturers to make a 
retrieval tool for the EDR information commercially available, and 
include a standardized statement in the owner's manual indicating that 
the vehicle is equipped with an EDR and describing its purpose. Part 
563 helps ensure that EDRs record, in a readily usable manner, data 
valuable for effective crash investigations and for analysis of safety 
equipment performance (e.g., advanced restraint systems).
    Description of the Need for the Information and Use of the 
Information: Under 49 U.S.C. 322(a), the Secretary of Transportation 
(the ``Secretary'') is authorized to prescribe regulations to carry out 
the duties and powers of the Secretary. One of the duties of the 
Secretary is to administer the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle 
Safety Act, as amended. The Secretary has delegated the responsibility 
for carrying out the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act to 
NHTSA.\1\ Two statutory provisions, 49 U.S.C. 30182 and 23 U.S.C. 403, 
authorize NHTSA to collect motor vehicle crash data to support its 
safety mission. NHTSA collects motor vehicle crash information under 
these authorities to support its statutory mandate to establish motor 
vehicle safety standards and reduce the occurrence and cost of traffic 
crashes.\2\ NHTSA also utilizes crash data in the enforcement of motor 
vehicle safety recalls and other motor vehicle highway safety programs 
that reduce fatalities, injuries, and property damage caused by motor 
vehicle crashes. In 2006, NHTSA exercised its general authority to 
issue such rules and regulations as deemed necessary to carry out 
Chapter 301 of Title 49, United States Code to promulgate 49 CFR part 
563.\3\
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    \1\ 49 U.S.C. 105 and 322; delegation of authority at 49 CFR 
1.95.
    \2\ See 49 U.S.C. 30101 and 30111.
    \3\ 71 FR 50997, August 28, 2006.
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    NHTSA issued part 563 to improve crash data collection by 
standardizing data recorded on EDRs to help provide a better 
understanding of the circumstances in which crashes and injuries occur, 
which will in turn lead to the development of safer vehicle designs. 
EDR data are used to improve the quality of crash data collection to 
assist safety researchers, vehicle manufacturers, and the agency in 
crash investigations to understand vehicle crashes better and more 
precisely. Similarly, vehicle manufacturers are able to utilize EDRs in 
improving vehicle designs and developing more effective vehicle safety 
countermeasures, and EDR data may be used by Advanced Automatic Crash 
Notification (AACN) systems to aid emergency response teams in 
assessing the severity of a crash and estimating the probability of 
serious injury.
    Additionally, the agency's experience in handling unintended 
acceleration and pedal entrapment allegations has demonstrated that, if 
a vehicle is equipped with an EDR, the data from that EDR can improve 
the ability of both the agency and the vehicle's manufacturer to 
identify and address safety concerns associated with possible defects 
in the design or performance of the vehicle.
    Description of the Likely Respondents: The respondents are 
manufacturers that voluntarily equip passenger cars, multipurpose 
passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses having a GVWR of 3,855 kg (8,500 
pounds) or less and an unloaded vehicle weight of 2,495 kg (5,500 
pounds) with EDRs. The agency estimates that there are approximately 18 
such manufacturers.
    Estimate Total Annual Burden Hours: NHTSA estimates that there are 
no annual reporting or recordkeeping burdens associated with Part 563, 
except for the owner's manual statement requirement which will be 
incorporated into the consolidated owner's manual requirements 
information collection (OMB Control Number 2127-0541). Vehicle 
manufacturers are not required to retain or report information gathered 
by EDRs because the devices themselves continuously monitor vehicle 
systems and determine when to record, retain, and/or overwrite 
information. The information is collected automatically by electronic 
means. Data are only required to be locked and cannot be overwritten 
when a recordable event occurs (e.g., an air bag deploys in a crash 
event). When recordable events do occur, EDRs only capture data for a 
few seconds. NHTSA estimates that there is no annual hourly burden 
associated with the information standardization requirements of part 
563.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: In the August 2006 final rule, 
the agency estimated that the costs associated with the final rule were 
negligible. Several factors contributed to this determination. First, 
NHTSA estimated that about 64 percent of new light vehicles in 2005 
already added the EDR capability to the vehicles' existing air bag 
control systems. Thus, the EDRs were simply capturing information that 
was already being processed by the vehicle. Additionally, in the final 
rule the agency sought to limit the number of EDR data elements and 
associated

[[Page 47721]]

requirements to the minimum necessary to achieve our stated purposes. 
At that time, NHTSA determined that the industry's current state-of-
the-art EDRs largely met the purposes of part 563. Thus, it was 
unnecessary to specify requirements for additional sensors or other 
hardware that would increase EDR costs appreciably. NHTSA stated in the 
final rule that the most significant technology cost could result from 
the need to upgrade data storage.
    The cost of data storage, long-term or short-term, has drastically 
reduced over the years.\4\ Regardless of the storage type, costs are 
now a fraction of what they were even 10 years ago.\5\ A recent study 
from NHTSA looking at EDR technologies reported that information 
provided by industry indicated that a typical recorded event requires 
about 2 kilobytes (Kb) of memory depending on the manufacturer.\6\ 
Information from manufacturers also indicated that the typical 
microprocessor used in vehicle applications, in approximately the 2013 
timeframe, had 32 Kb or 64 Kb of flash data as part of the air bag 
control module (ACM) and that only a fraction of the memory is 
dedicated to the EDR data. This study also estimated the total memory 
usage for all Table I and Table II data elements, listed at 49 CFR 
563.7, recorded for the minimum required duration and frequency 
requirements in part 563. It reported that to record Table I and II 
data elements would require 0.072 Kb and 0.858 Kb of memory storage, 
respectively.
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    \4\ https://www.computerworld.com/article/3182207/cw50-data-storage-goes-from-1m-to-2-cents-per-gigabyte.html
    \5\ https://hblok.net/blog/posts/2017/12/17/historical-cost-of-computer-memory-and-storage-4/
    \6\ DOT HS 812 929, https://www.nhtsa.gov/document/light-vehicle-event-data-recorder-technologies
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    In addition, NHTSA now estimates that 99.5 percent of model year 
2021 light vehicles have a compliant EDR, meaning manufacturers have 
largely already incurred the cost of meeting the part 563 requirements. 
Given that EDRs are installed on nearly all new light vehicles, the 
large amount of storage that is part of the air bag control module (32 
kb or 64 kb), the small fraction required for EDR data (<1 kb), and the 
negligible costs for data storage, NHTSA continues to believe that 
there would be no additional costs or negligible costs associated with 
the Part 563 requirements. Therefore, the cost burden for this 
collection of information is discussed qualitatively.
    Part 563 only applies to vehicles voluntarily-equipped with EDRs. 
Therefore, any burden is based on the differences in cost between a 
compliant and non-compliant EDR. In considering additional burden for 
compliant EDRs, NHTSA considered: (1) The additional burden of meeting 
the 10-day data crash survivability requirement; and (2) the additional 
burden of meeting the data format requirements. Part 563 requires that 
an EDR must function during and after the compliance tests specified in 
FMVSS Nos. 208 and 214. The EDR's stored data is required to be 
downloadable 10 days after the crash tests. This requirement provides a 
basic functioning and survivability level for EDRs, but does not ensure 
that EDRs survive extremely severe crashes, fire, or fluid immersion. 
The burden for data survivability can include costs for an additional 
power supply and enhancements for computer area network (CAN) such as 
wiring, data bus, and harness. However, before part 563 was established 
the agency had not documented an EDR survivability problem except in 
rare and extremely severe events such as fire and submergence. Thus, 
the agency does not believe vehicle manufacturers incur additional 
costs to comply with the ability to retrieve the essential data 
elements 10 days after the crash test.
    With regard to the memory capacity required to meet the part 563 
data requirements, due to proprietary concerns, the adequacy of 
existing memory capacity of part 563 non-compliant vehicles is not 
known. However, we believe that the part 563 requirements are 
comparable to the current industry EDR practices. In terms of the 
burden associated with software algorithm changes to meet the data 
format requirements, the agency believes that, in the event a vehicle 
manufacturer needs to redesign their software algorithm, the redesign 
would be minor (e.g., changing the specifications in their codes). The 
agency estimates that the cost of algorithm redesign would be 
negligible on a per vehicle basis and it would be an upfront cost 
(i.e., not a recurring burden).
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspects of 
this information collection, including (a) whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the Department, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate 
of the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways 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 automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. chapter 
35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29.

R. Ryan Posten,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking, National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-18420 Filed 8-25-21; 8:45 am]
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