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Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST) Initiative Publication: Federal Register Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Chou-Lin Chen Date: 30 June 2023 Subjects: American Government  , Autonomous Vehicles, Safety
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 125 (Friday, June 30, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42421-42424]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-13902]
[[Page 42421]]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA-2023-015]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Automated
Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST)
Initiative
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a request for approval for
extension with modification of a currently approved information
collection.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA),
this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR)
abstracted below will be submitted to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The ICR describes the nature of
the information collection and its expected burden. The information
collection described in this document is for NHTSA's Automated Vehicle
Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST) Initiative,
which involves the collection of voluntarily-submitted information from
entities involved in the testing of vehicles equipped with automated
driving systems (ADS) and from States and local authorities involved in
the regulation of ADS testing. The purpose of this collection is to
provide information to the public about ADS testing operations in the
United States and applicable State and local laws, regulations, and
guidelines. A Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period
soliciting comments on the information collection was published on
April 6, 2023 (83 FR 20608). NHTSA received 3 comment submission and a
brief summary and NHTSA's response to those comments is provided in
this document.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before July 31, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection, including suggestions for reducing burden,
should be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget at
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. To find this particular information
collection, select ``Currently under Review--Open for Public Comment''
or use the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or access
to background documents, contact Chris Wiacek, Office of Data
Acquisition, (NSA-100), Room W53-478, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20590. Mr. Wiacek's telephone number is (202) 366-4801.
Please identify the relevant collection of information by referring to
its OMB Control Number.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), a
Federal agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) before it collects certain information from the public and
a person is not required to respond to a collection of information by a
Federal agency unless the collection displays a valid OMB control
number. In compliance with these requirements, this notice announces
that the following information collection request will be submitted
OMB.
A Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting
public comments on the following information collection was published
on April 6, 2023.
Title: Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe
Testing (AV TEST) Initiative.
OMB Control Number: 2127-0748.
Form Number: NHTSA Form 1586--AV TEST Tracker eForm; NHTSA Form
1587--AV TEST Onboarding Form.
Type of Request: Request for approval for extension with
modification of a currently approved information collection.
Type of Review Requested: Regular.
Length of Approval Requested: Three years from the date of
approval.
Summary of the Collection of Information: The U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) was established by Congress to save lives, prevent injuries,
and reduce economic costs due to motor vehicle crashes through
education, research, safety standards, and enforcement activity. DOT
and NHTSA are fully committed to reaching an era of crash-free roadways
through the deployment of innovative lifesaving technologies. The
prevalence of automotive crashes in the United States underscores the
urgency to develop and deploy lifesaving technologies that can
dramatically decrease the number of fatalities and injuries on our
Nation's roadways.
NHTSA believes that Automated Driving System (ADS) technology,
including technology contemplating no human driver at all, has the
potential to significantly improve roadway safety in the United States.
This technology remains substantially in development phases with
companies across the United States performing varying levels of
development, research, and testing relating to the performance of
various aspects of ADS vehicle technologies. While much of these
development operations occur in private facilities and closed-course
test tracks, many stakeholders have progressed to conducting ADS
vehicle testing on public roads or in public demonstrations. Moreover,
to regulate such operations in their jurisdictions, many local
authorities, such as States and cities, have passed laws governing ADS
vehicle testing on public roads. These statutes, regulations, and
ordinances vary, ranging from operational requirements to mandating the
submission of periodic reports detailing ADS vehicle operation.
Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the
Information: The AV TEST Initiative seeks to enhance public education
and engagement with public ADS vehicle testing by coalescing
information regarding respondents' various testing operations or
requirements into a centralized resource. This information collection
seeks voluntarily-provided information from entities performing ADS
testing about their operations and information from local authorities
about requirements or recommendations for such operations. NHTSA
maintains a digital platform on its website \1\ that collects
information from respondents and makes the information about ADS
operations and applicable State and local requirements and
recommendations available to members of the public.
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\1\ https://www.nhtsa.gov/automated-vehicle-test-tracking-tool.
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The program supports two main objectives. The first objective is to
provide the public with access to geographic visualizations of testing
at the national, State, and local levels. This information is displayed
on a graphic of the United States, with projects overlaid on the
geographic areas in which the testing project is taking place. By
clicking on a testing location, members of the public see additional
information about the operation and the ADS operator. Additional
information may include basic information about the ADS operator, a
brief statement about the entity, specific details of the testing
activity, high-level (non-confidential) descriptions of the vehicles
and technology, photos of the test vehicles, the dates on which testing
occurs, frequency of vehicle operations, the
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number of vehicles participating in the project, the specific streets
or areas comprising the testing routes, information about safety
drivers and their training, information about engagement with the
community and/or local government, weblinks to the company's websites
with brief introductory statements, and a link to the company's
Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment (VSSA).\2\
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\2\ Voluntary Self-Assessments are described in Automated
Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety, available at https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/13069a-ads2.0_090617_v9a_tag.pdf. VSSAs are covered by the PRA Clearance
with OMB Control Number 2127-0723.
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The second objective is to provide members of the public with
information collected from States and local authorities that regulate
ADS operations. State and local authorities will be asked to provide
weblinks for specific ADS-related topics, such as statutes,
regulations, or guidelines for ADS operations, privacy-related issues,
emergency response policies and training, or other activities that
cultivate ADS testing. This program provides a central resource for the
aforementioned information concerning ADS testing across the United
States.
Affected Public: There are two information collection components to
this request. The first affects entities engaged in testing of ADS
vehicles, including original manufacturers of ADS vehicles and ADS
vehicle equipment, and operators of ADS vehicles. The second affects
local authorities regulating testing of ADS vehicles within their
jurisdictions, including States, cities, counties, and other
municipalities.
Estimated Number of Respondents: NHTSA anticipates that the
Initiative could expand to include up to 35 State or local government
respondents and 40 ADS developer, ADS vehicle manufacturer, or ADS
operator respondents per year.
Frequency: Participation is completely voluntary, and each
participant will choose its respective degree of involvement and the
frequency of its submissions. Therefore, the frequency of a
participant's response may vary due to a variety of factors, such as
the degree of the entity's participation in the initiative or the
frequency with which each entity modifies its ADS testing operations
or, in the case of local authorities, amends its regulations governing
such operations.
Number of Responses: Participation is completely voluntary, and
each participation will choose the number and frequency of its
submissions. Therefore, the number of responses from a participant will
vary due to a variety of factors, such as the degree of the entity's
participation in the initiative or the frequency with which each entity
modifies its ADS testing operations or, in the case of local
authorities, amends its regulations governing such operations.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: NHTSA estimates that the
annual burden of participation will be approximately 48 hours for
private industry respondents that include ADS operators, developers, or
vehicle manufacturers. This total number of hours represents
approximately four hours per month to perform data entry for testing
projects (4 hours x 12 months = 48). Therefore, for the estimated 40
ADS operator participants, the total burden is estimated to be 1,920
hours per year (40 respondents x 48 hours).
NHTSA estimates that each State or local authority respondent would
spend approximately 10 hours responding to this collection. Therefore,
for the estimated 35 State or local authority participants, the total
burden is estimated to be 350 hours per year.
The total burden for the entire information collection request is
estimated to be 2,270 hours (1,920 hours + 350 hours). The total burden
hours have been reduced from the original estimate of 2,520 when the
agency first sought approval for this information collection because of
the lower estimated participation. However, the agency believes the
annual hours per respondent has not changed.
The labor cost associated with this collection of information is
derived by (1) applying the appropriate average hourly labor rate
published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2) dividing by either
0.705 \3\ (70.5%), for private industry workers, or 0.619 (61.9%), for
state and local government workers, to obtain the total cost of
compensation, and (3) multiplying by the estimated burden hours for
each respondent type.
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\3\ See Table 1. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by
ownership (Sep. 2022), available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t01.htm (accessed March 14, 2023).
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Labor costs associated with original manufacturers of ADS Vehicles
or ADS vehicle equipment and operators of ADS vehicles are estimated to
be $60.48 per hour for ``Project Management Specialists,'' Occupation
Code 13-1082, ($42.64 \4\ per hour / 0.705). The labor cost per private
industry respondent for each year for development and submission of
information is estimated to be $2,903.04 ($60.48 x 48 hours).
Therefore, the total annual labor cost for private industry to
participate in the AV TEST Initiative is estimated to be $116,121.60
($2,903.04 x 40 respondents).
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\4\ See May 2021 National Industry-Specific Occupational
Employment and Wage Estimates NAICS 336100--Motor Vehicle
Manufacturing, available (accessed March 14, 2023).
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Labor costs associated with local and regional authorities, such as
states, counties, and cities are estimated to be $66.79 per hour for
``Legal Support Workers,'' Occupation Code 23-2099, ($41.34 \5\ per
hour / 0.619). The labor cost per regional authority respondent for
each year for development and submission of information is estimated to
be $667.90 ($66.79 x 10 hours). Therefore, the total annual labor cost
for regional authorities to participate in the AV TEST Initiative is
estimated to be $23,376.50 ($667.9 x 35 respondents).
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\5\ See May 2021 National Occupational Employment and Wage
Estimates by ownership Federal, state, and local government,
including government-owned schools and hospitals and the U.S. Postal
Service, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/999001.htm#23-0000 (accessed March 14, 2023).
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The total annual labor costs for all respondents, private industry,
and regional authorities together, are estimated to be $139,499
($116,122 + $23.377). See Table 1 below for a summary of estimated
burden hours and estimated labor costs.
Table 1--Summary of Estimated Burden Hours and Estimated Labor Costs
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Total
Number of Annual Labor Annual labor estimated Total annual
Respondent type respondents hours per cost per cost per burden labor costs
respondent hour respondent hours
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Original Manufacturer of ADS 40 48 $60.48 $2,903.04 1,920 $116,122
Vehicles or ADS Vehicle
Equipment and Operators of
ADS Vehicles.................
State or Local Authority...... 35 10 66.79 667.900 350 23,377
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[[Page 42423]]
Total All Respondents..... 75 ........... ......... .............. 2,270 139,499
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NHTSA's estimate for the burden hours for participants remained the
same from the April 6, 2023, notice.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: NHTSA estimates that there will
be no costs to respondents other than labor costs associated with
burden hours.
Summary of Public Comments: On April 6, 2023, NHTSA published a
notice in the Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period
soliciting comments on the information collection (88 FR 20608). NHTSA
received a total of 3 comment submission from organizations including,
Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators), Owner-Operator
Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and a joint submission from
Safe Kids Worldwide and Safe Kids in Automated Vehicle Alliance (Safe
Kids). A summary and response to the comments is provided below.
All commenters supported the Initiative's objective to enhance
public education and engagement with public ADS vehicle testing by
coalescing information regarding respondents' various testing
operations or requirements into a centralized resource including
information collected from States and local authorities that regulate
ADS operations. Specifically, Auto Innovators commented that providing
the public with access to see where testing is occurring at the
national, state, and local levels helps provide additional transparency
and assurances for how safety, mobility and accessibility issues are
being addressed by innovators in the AV space, which is critical for
building public acceptance of this burgeoning technology. OOIDA
supported the objectives of the AV TEST Initiative by stating, it
provides the public with direct and easy access to information about AV
testing and development, along with information from states regarding
activity, legislation, regulations, and local involvement in automation
on our roadways. Safe Kids stated NHTSA's information and data
collection under the AV TEST Initiative provides a mechanism to keep
the public and safety advocates informed about automated vehicle
testing activities to be conducted on public roads throughout the
country.
The agency did not receive specific comments on the burden of the
data collection, however OOIDA and Auto Innovators provided additional
comments on how the agency may enhance the Initiative.
OOIDA stated the voluntary nature of AV TEST has not been effective
in producing the necessary safety data to implement informed regulatory
policies for autonomous vehicles. The AV TEST Initiative's voluntary
structure prevents the program from best accomplishing its goals and
NHTSA must require mandatory data transparency from manufacturers
because it will help educate consumers, the industry, and regulators
about the actual reliability and performance of autonomous technology.
In response, the agency's objective of the AV TEST Initiative is to
provide members of the public with a centralized database of high-level
information about ADS testing activities and State and local laws,
recommendations, and initiatives. It is, therefore, outside of the
scope of the project to make any reporting mandatory or to expand the
collection to include safety information or information that NHTSA
would use to evaluate the safety of ADS operations.
The Auto Innovators provided further comments specific to the AV
TEST Initiative and how data is presented to the public. The Auto
Innovators stated that it is important that NHTSA conduct periodic
reviews to verify the accuracy of information that is made available on
the AV TEST initiative portal, and that it is up to date. This may
include spot check outreach to select organizations to provide updates
on the status of their operations, or other updates to the data where
the information is known to no longer be accurate (for example, if an
AV tester were to cease operations).
In response, the agency agrees with the Auto Innovators and
believes accurate data serves the intent of the Initiative to enhance
public education and engagement with public ADS vehicles. However,
NHTSA notes that data submitted as part of the AV TEST Initiative may
become stale. For example, because the AV TEST Initiative is voluntary,
an ADS operator could provide information on an ADS operation and never
update NHTSA when the operation is completed. Although we provide a
mechanism for participants to change the status of test sites from
active to inactive or completed, participants may not update the status
of an operation. NHTSA does reach out to program participants about
operations that has not been updated for an extended period of time. In
addition, we have provided participants the ability to remove out-of-
date information and archive the data, which removes it from the AV
TEST web page.
Furthermore, because the information submitted by participants is
voluntary, before information is transferred to the public website the
agency reviews the submissions for any obvious errors or concerns and
will contact the participants accordingly prior to approval for
publication if any concerns are identified. The agency also does a
general periodic review for information that is out-of-data such as
removing participants from the public website when we become aware the
entity is no longer testing and has ceased operations.
The Auto Innovators also recommended NHTSA consider repurposing or
rebranding the AV TEST initiative to emphasize not only the testing of
AVs, but also to capture the transition from testing to real-world
deployment. This is unlikely to create any additional burden in terms
of the information provided as part of the AV TEST initiative but is
likely an important distinction to make in building public acceptance
and confidence in new technology. This could perhaps be achieved by
using different colors and/or patterns to enable users to distinguish
between testing and deployment in the online visualization tool.
In response, the agency believes the AV TEST Initiative needs to
evolve over time as the technology progresses and the ADS developers
transition their operations to have changing interaction with the
public beyond testing and demonstration. Currently, the AV TEST
Initiative provides participants the options to identify testing
operations where the vehicles are providing a service to the public,
however, currently specific to testing and not real-world deployment.
As recently as May 10th, 2023, the agency held a workshop with
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participants where we rolled out changes made to the AV TEST website
based upon earlier feedback from participants to improve the conveyance
of information to the public. We encourage participants and the public
to contact the agency on ways to further improve the AV TEST
experience.\6\ Prior to committing resources, the agency would like
further information on the need and scope of the real-world deployment
of ADS vehicles.
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\6\ ADSInformationDesk@dot.gov.
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Lastly, Auto Innovators suggested, NHTSA should proactively
encourage states to share information on statewide AV policies or
initiatives as part of the AV TEST program, as this information is not
only critical for public transparency, but also an important resource
for manufacturers that need to develop systems to account for
operational and policy related differences between regions.
In response, the agency has proactively reached out to states and
encouraged them to participate in this voluntary program. In discussion
with the states, the agency recognizes that each state has their own
priorities with respect to ADS vehicles and may have limited resources
or interest to participate in AV TEST. The agency continues to
encourage state participation, however, as noted earlier this is a
voluntary program.
NHTSA appreciates the commenters' input and will keep this input in
mind when considering future approaches to ADS technologies.
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 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) 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 appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms
of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of
responses.
Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. Chapter
35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29.
Chou-Lin Chou,
Associate Administrator, National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2023-13902 Filed 6-29-23; 8:45 am]
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