Early Warning Reporting, Foreign Defect Reporting, and Motor Vehicle and Equipment Recall Regulations |
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Frank Borris
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
March 10, 2014
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 46 (Monday, March 10, 2014)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 13258-13259]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-05126]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Parts 573, 577, and 579
[Docket No. NHTSA--2012-0068; Notice 4]
RIN 2127-AK72
Early Warning Reporting, Foreign Defect Reporting, and Motor
Vehicle and Equipment Recall Regulations
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Technical Specifications for Vehicle
Identification Number (VIN) Look-up Interface.
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SUMMARY: On January 22, 2014, NHTSA held a public meeting to review and
discuss the technical specifications that vehicle manufacturers will
need in order to support the VIN-based safety recalls look-up tool that
will be housed on the NHTSA Web site www.safercar.gov. Numerous members
of the auto industry, as well as consumer advocacy groups, vehicle
history service providers, and others attended. This notice announces
the availability of the final technical specification for the VIN
interface.
DATES: March 10, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Previously submitted comments and petitions for
reconsideration can be found in the docket.
For access to the docket to read background documents or comments
received, go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online
instructions for accessing the docket. You may also visit DOT's Docket
Management Facility, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001 for on-line access to
the docket.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Timian, Chief, Recall
Management Division, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
telephone 202-366-0209, email jennifer.timian@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 20, 2013, NHTSA published a final
rule requiring certain vehicle manufacturers to allow the secure
electronic transfer of manufacturer recall data to NHTSA when a
consumer submits VIN information to the agency's Web site for purposes
of learning vehicle recall information. See 78 FR 51382, 51401. This
requirement applies to manufacturers who manufacture 25,000 light
vehicles annually or 5,000 motorcycles annually. Further information
about the requirement to transfer recall data to NHTSA based upon a
consumer's VIN may be found in the August 20, 2013 final rule.
In the final rule, NHTSA committed to hosting a public meeting to
discuss the technical specification that would facilitate the secure
transfer of recall information. That public meeting was held on January
22, 2014, and was attended by vehicle manufacturers, equipment
manufacturers, industry trade groups, safety advocates, vehicle history
report providers, and members of the public. NHTSA reviewed a VIN look-
up tool technical specification document it previously made available
to the public for discussion at the meeting, and attendees offered
their commentary and suggestions, asked questions, and sought
clarification on various points.
Based on the information we received from the public meeting, as
well as our review of the specifications, we have adjusted the
technical specifications and are making available the final technical
specifications. We note that these technical specifications may change
to address problems, issues or difficulties that arise from time-to-
time during the operation of the VIN-look-up tool. In those situations,
the agency will provide notice of its remedies to covered manufacturers
through EWR and place the technical specifications on the agency's Web
site, www.safercar.gov.
The following summarizes the public meeting:
1. Several manufacturers voiced concern regarding server
maintenance scheduling and the technical specifications' instruction
for manufacturers to provide information about scheduled server
maintenance times to NHTSA. Manufacturers were concerned these set
times would not offer enough flexibility to properly maintain their
servers. Also, some manufacturers questioned how often their systems
were allowed to be off-line for maintenance. The original technical
specifications document did not specify how often a manufacturer's
servers must be available for VIN look-up searches.
With the revised technical specifications we are announcing today,
we are discarding defined maintenance windows in favor of a
performance-based requirement. This new requirement is intended to
ensure manufacturers' servers are available to report recall results
with regularity and during time frames when U.S. users can be expected
to send inquiries through our Web site. We have devised a specific
error code to be used if and when a manufacturer's servers are unable
to accept a request so that we can monitor and track performance, and
that will also report out a message to the user that the search cannot
be completed at that time, and to try again at another time.
2. Some manufacturers suggested that the technical specifications
contain optional fields to include their manufacturer-assigned recall
numbers and their contact information (such as toll-free numbers and
Web site information) for display on any recall results shown on
NHTSA's VIN look-up tool. NHTSA has amended its technical
specifications document to add optional data fields to support the
transfer of this information.
3. Some manufacturers noted inconsistencies between the information
required to be provided on the manufacturer's Web site (or that of a
third party to whom consumers are redirected), See 49 CFR 573.15, and
NHTSA's VIN look-up tool. We have updated the technical specifications
to ensure consistency between the two notification systems.
4. Also discussed were the measures for ensuring the secure
transfer of information between a manufacturer and the agency.
Consistent with the final rule, the technical specifications required
use of SSL and unique API keys to ensure VIN requests and responses are
encrypted adequately. Use of SSL and unique API keys is consistent with
standard security practices. As noted in the earlier technical
specifications, NHTSA will also validate VIN requests by requiring a
CAPTCHA, or similar user validation, before contacting manufacturer
servers for VIN results.
Manufacturers with early warning reporting (EWR) accounts may
obtain a copy of the VIN look-up interface technical specifications
through the agency's Web site. To obtain the technical specifications,
these manufacturers can use their EWR
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account credentials to access the secure Web page at http://www.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ewr/login.cfm. After logging in to the EWR
system, the document labeled ``NEW--Technical Specifications for VIN
Lookup Interface'' can be found on the next page. For any manufacturer,
company, or group that does not have an EWR account, please contact
Alex Ansley at alexander.ansley@dot.gov to receive a copy of the
technical specifications.
Frank Borris,
Director, Office of Defects Investigation NHTSA.
[FR Doc. 2014-05126 Filed 3-7-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P