Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for Comments; Event Data Recorders |
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R. Ryan Posten
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
26 August 2021
[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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