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Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Request for Comment; Drivers' Knowledge/Correct Use of New Technology Features in Passenger Vehicles Publication: Federal Register Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Nanda Narayanan Srinivasan Date: 2 November 2022 Subjects: American Government  , Safety
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 211 (Wednesday, November 2, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66217-66220]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-23842]
[[Page 66217]]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA-2022-0063]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Request for
Comment; Drivers' Knowledge/Correct Use of New Technology Features in
Passenger Vehicles
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice and request for comments on a request for approval of a
new 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. This ICR is for a
new collection of information for which NHTSA intends to seek OMB
approval for a one-time voluntary experiment on drivers' understanding
of and behaviors using vehicles equipped with adaptive cruise control
and lane centering technologies. A Federal Register notice with a 60-
day comment period soliciting comments on the following information
collection was published on July 20, 2022 (86 FR 43374-76). NHTSA
received comments from two organizations, which we address below.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before December 2, 2022.
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 Kathy Sifrit, Ph.D., Office of
Behavioral Safety Research (NPD-320), (202) 366-9982, National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, W46-472, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
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.
Title: Drivers' Knowledge/Correct Use of New Technology Features in
Passenger Vehicles.
OMB Control Number: New.
Form Numbers: NHTSA Forms 1627, 1628, 1629, and 1630.
Type of Request: Approval of a new information collection.
Type of Review Requested: Regular.
Length of Approval Requested: Three years from date of approval.
Summary of the Collection of Information: The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of
Transportation is seeking approval for a one-time voluntary information
collection from 180 of licensed drivers of various ages for a research
study of drivers' interactions with Level 2 (L2) systems that can
provide longitudinal (adaptive cruise control) and lateral (lane
centering) control of the vehicle. NHTSA expects to provide screening
questionnaires to 1,000 potential participants to determine their
eligibility for the study. Recruiting participants for the study has an
estimated burden of 250 hours for the screening questions. An estimated
200 potential participants will be eligible and interested. This group
will receive the consent form with an estimated burden of 150 hours for
reviewing and completing the form. An estimated 180 participants are
expected to consent and enroll in the study. Participants' naturalistic
driving data will be collected using a data acquisition system (DAS)
installed in study-provided vehicles. The DAS includes video cameras
and sensors; data also will be collected from the vehicle. Naturalistic
driving data will be collected for two weeks with the L2 systems in
this study unavailable to the drivers to provide a baseline measure of
participants' driving habits, followed by four weeks driving with the
systems available to measure changes in driving patterns as well as
safety-related behaviors such as distracted driving and seat belt use.
While the naturalistic data collection does not create a burden to
participants, study tasks above and beyond the driving they would
normally complete include a 15-minute enrollment procedure, a one-hour
vehicle familiarization briefing, a two-hour training about the L2
systems, two two-hour planned drives (one at the beginning and one at
the end of the study), five 30-minute planned drives (during the
study), a five-minute usability questionnaire, and a 30-minute final
debriefing. As such, the naturalistic study has an expected burden of
1,860 hours. In addition, half the participants will complete a 15-
minute questionnaire that measures knowledge and opinions before
exposure to the L2 systems and the other half will complete after
exposure with an estimated burden of 45 hours. The total expected
burden for this collection is 2,305 hours. NHTSA will use the
information to produce a technical report containing summary statistics
and tables. No identifying information or individual responses will be
reported. The technical report will be made available to a variety of
audiences interested in improving highway safety through the agency
website and the National Transportation Library. This project involves
approval by an institutional review board, which the contractor will
obtain before contacting potential participants. This collection will
inform the development of behavioral safety countermeasures,
particularly in the areas of communications and training, intended to
improve drivers' ability to use L2 systems safely.
Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the
Information: NHTSA's mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and
reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. To further
this mission, NHTSA conducts research as a foundation for the
development of motor vehicle standards and traffic safety programs.
Older adults comprise an increasing proportion of the driving
population. Driving supports older adults' access to the goods and
services they need and enhances their ability to take part in community
and family activities that support quality of life. Vehicles equipped
with L2 systems can reduce the cognitive load imposed by driving, which
may make them appealing to older drivers who may find driving
cognitively taxing, and to younger adults who may find the systems
useful when navigating through heavy traffic or during long trips.
However, drivers must understand what they can and cannot expect from
L2 systems to use them safely and effectively. An increasing proportion
of
[[Page 66218]]
passenger vehicles are equipped with L2 systems which, under
appropriate conditions, keep the vehicle centered in the lane and
manage the vehicle's acceleration/braking to stay an appropriate
distance from the vehicle ahead while maintaining driving speed.
Research regarding driver understanding of L2 systems has been mixed.
NHTSA is concerned that drivers may over-rely on L2 systems, and engage
risky behaviors such as driving while distracted, drowsy, or under the
influence of alcohol or drugs. NHTSA desires to learn more about how
older and young adult drivers use these systems to better target
behavioral countermeasures such as communications and training to
ensure that drivers use the systems safely.
60-Day Notice: A Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting public comments on the following information
collection was published on July 20, 2022. Two organizations submitted
comments: The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (the Alliance) and the
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The Alliance was generally
supportive of the agency's efforts to evaluate how Level 2 (L2) systems
that can provide longitudinal and lateral control of the vehicle are
being used by consumers in the field and noted the importance of
research in ensuring a data-driven approach to policy. They recommended
some changes in project design to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be collected. TxDOT also expressed
support for the project and noted that the findings will help State
departments of transportation to communicate and educate the public on
how to safely use L2 systems. They also asked some questions about the
study design. We appreciate the comments from Alliance and TxDOT and
thank them for thoughtfully considering the proposed collection.
The Alliance provided comments about several aspects of the study
design. The first topic involved how the study familiarizes
participants with the L2 systems. We agree that is important to ensure
that participants understand the L2 systems and that the
familiarization should include information from the manufacturer.
However, the Alliance indicated that the amount of time planned for
familiarizing participants with the study vehicles and the two
technologies is far more than is provided to car buyers under real
world conditions. While we recognize that this protocol provides
substantially more information and training than people typically
receive or seek when buying a new vehicle, the study does not aim to
replicate the level of familiarization car buyers receive from a
dealership. The amount of time in this study is intended to familiarize
participants with the L2 systems to minimize drivers' errors due to
misunderstanding of the systems' capabilities and limitations that
could arise if they use the systems without understanding and operating
them appropriately. While the data collection plan (and the burden
calculation) includes up to 120 minutes to provide adequate time to
familiarize each participant with the vehicle, including the L2
systems, we expect the average time will be closer to 90 minutes.
During this time participants will watch a video about the L2 systems,
and a researcher will go over all the L2-related materials in the
owner's manual, including warnings, and explain when the system will
not work. A researcher will then sit in the vehicle with the
participant and review the systems including the location of buttons
and warnings. A researcher will then demonstrate the systems on the
roadway including examples and discussions of situations when the
systems may not work, and finally the participant will practice with
the systems on roadways until the participant and the researcher are
confident about basic system operation. The researchers are not
training participants to any performance or proficiency level beyond
basic understanding and operation to minimize potential errors in data
collection. The Alliance also noted the importance of correctly
classifying risky behaviors. The protocol described above helps
minimize misclassification of driver actions that stem from
misunderstanding of system capabilities as opposed to intentional risky
behavior. The Alliance also recommended that NHTSA consider examining
various levels of training, which would likely involve varying the
length of the familiarization and the burden per participant. We agree
that a study of the effects of various levels of training would be
useful in developing educational materials for drivers. However, we
also believe such a design would require a much larger study with
significantly more participants than this proposed study and should
build upon this proposed collection. NHTSA will make decisions about
future research based on the findings of this study and other ongoing
research.
The second topic focused on the choice of technologies. The
Alliance noted that some L2 systems are limited to adaptive cruise
control and lane keeping assist while others monitor driver state and
support hands-free driving. They recommended that NHTSA include a
variety of makes and models in the study to create more variation in
the types of technologies. Since the behavioral safety research
questions in this proposed study do not involve system comparisons or
aim to examine system design, NHTSA plans to retain the design decision
to use one vehicle to control for differences in technologies. This
study design intentionally recruits participants who vary in age and
sex while it aims to control for the type of system, and it is
different from a design where one would include various makes and
models with different designs and try to control for differences among
participants. Varying both participant groups and systems would require
a much larger study to have sufficient statistical power. This
project's focus is drivers' behaviors while using the system. While we
acknowledge the growing variety of L2 systems, we selected adaptive
cruise control and lane centering for this study because they are
widely available to consumers and are designed to provide similar types
of driver support. We acknowledge, however, that restricting the study
to a particular model requires careful selection. The goal is to select
a ``typical'' or ``common'' vehicle and system and to avoid highly
unusual or novel interfaces. With this goal in mind, we will select a
study vehicle that provides adaptive cruise control and lane centering
and is moderately priced. As such, we believe that the basic principles
underlying these two systems are sufficiently similar across platforms
that lessons learned about behaviors under one would generalize to
others.
Another topic involved how the study classifies behaviors as
``safety related'' in the context of systems that allow hands-free
operation under some conditions as well as strategies for re-engaging
the driver. The L2 system for this study will not support hands-free
driving, and participants will be advised to keep their hands on the
wheel and to continually monitor traffic. Instances of a participant's
eyes off road longer than 2 seconds or hands off the wheel will be
coded as safety related (risky) behaviors.\1\ The Alliance further
suggested that the study should evaluate differences in strategies for
re-engaging drivers based on the number of warnings and warning types
as well as
[[Page 66219]]
other factors that may impact drivers' responses to warnings or
potential misuses. Addressing these research questions would require
variation in system design and inclusion of vehicles that support some
hands-free operation. As discussed above, these questions are beyond
the scope of the project and would require a much larger study.
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\1\ See ``Visual-Manual NHTSA Driver Distraction Guidelines for
Portable and Aftermarket Devices,'' 81 FR 87656 (December 5, 2016).
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-05/pdf/2016-29051.pdf.
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Another topic raised by the Alliance expressed concern about
varying levels of driving experience, especially among the youngest age
group, and suggested that we gather information on prior driving
histories and experiences with systems in their personal vehicles. We
agree that participants with varying levels of driving experience and
experience with L2 systems could complicate the study and analysis. The
proposed study design addresses this issue through the questions in the
Screening Questionnaire (Form 1627). To qualify for the study, a person
must have a valid driver's license and have been fully licensed for at
least two years. The focus of this study is on drivers with little or
no experience with L2 systems, so the Screening Questionnaire helps
remove participants with experience driving a vehicle that comes with
an L2 system. Further, participants cannot have used any adaptive
cruise control, lane keeping assist, or lane centering systems five or
more times. These screening requirements should ensure that
participants have adequate driving experience and similar levels of L2
experience.
The Alliance's final topic involved the knowledge and opinion
questionnaire (Form 1629). The Alliance recommended increasing the
burden by administering the questionnaire to all participants before
and after exposure to provide insights to inform communications with
the public. We believe administering the questionnaire before and after
L2 exposure to all participants risks carryover effects as completing
the pre-exposure questionnaire would make it more likely for
participants to note and remember the ``right'' responses during
familiarization. This effect could undermine the validity of the post-
exposure responses as a measure of what drivers learned through the
course of the study.
TxDOT offered two comments regarding the design of the proposed
study. The first comment noted that the proposed study involves three
age groups (18 to 25, 35 to 55, and 70 and older), and they asked why
it excluded drivers between the ages of 26 and 34 and 56 to 69.
Recruiting in specific age groups and excluding others is a common
method for comparing the effects of age because it allows substantive
comparisons across age groups without potentially comparing
participants whose age is only different by one year. Further, given
that age is an important explanatory variable in this study, these age
groups provide substantive differences across groups and could add to
the statistical power to find an effect of age. Finally, TxDOT noted
that the proposed study design of four weeks of observation may be too
little time to measure changes in driving patterns as well as safety-
related behaviors and that we should consider increasing the burden to
collect more valid data over a longer period. While we agree that this
proposed study is a relatively limited amount of time to collect
observation data, this project focuses on drivers' behaviors during
their first weeks using the systems as they become familiar with them.
We believe the proposed length of time is sufficient given the findings
from this study will inform development of behavioral safety
countermeasures, particularly in the areas of communications and
training, to improve drivers' ability to use L2 systems safely.
Additionally, drivers are most likely to seek such information when
they first begin using, or even before using, L2 systems.
Affected Public: Study volunteers in the Blacksburg, VA, area. The
study plans to recruit participants with little to no experience
driving a vehicle with L2 systems. Of the 180 selected drivers, 60 will
be age 70 and older, 60 will be between the ages of 35 and 55, and 60
will be between ages 18 and 25. Equal numbers of males and females will
be recruited within each age group.
Estimated Number of Respondents: The study anticipates screening
1,000 potential participants to obtain 180 drivers who meet study
inclusion criteria. NHTSA expects to provide screening questionnaires
to 1,000 potential participants to determine their eligibility for the
study. Based upon previous research experience in the study area, an
estimated 200 potential participants (20% of those who respond to
screener questions) will be eligible and interested. An estimated 180
participants (90% of those who receive the consent form) are expected
to consent and enroll in the study.
Frequency: This study is a one-time information collection, and
there will be no recurrence.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 2,305.
The annual estimated burden is 2,305 hours. This estimate includes
250 hours for 1,000 potential participants to complete the initial
screening and 150 hours for 200 potential participants to review and
complete the consent form. The burden estimate also includes 1,860
hours for the 180 consented and enrolled participants to complete all
study tasks above and beyond the driving they would normally complete
during the naturalistic driving observation periods. The study tasks
include a 15-minute process for study enrollment, a 1-hour vehicle
familiarization briefing, a 2-hour training about the L2 systems, two
2-hour planned drives (one at the beginning and one at the end of the
study), five 30-minute planned drivers (during the study), a five-
minute usability questionnaire, and a 30-minute final debriefing. In
addition, half the participants will complete a 15-minute questionnaire
that measures knowledge and opinions before exposure to L2 systems and
the other half will complete the questionnaire after exposure with an
estimated burden of 45 hours. The total burden is the sum of the burden
across screening, consenting, and completing the study for a total
estimate of 2,305 hours. The details are presented in Table 1 below.
Table 1--Estimated Burden Hours by Form
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Total
Estimated estimated
Form Description Participants minutes per burden hours
participant per form
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Form 1627.......................... Screening Questionnaire.... 1,000 15 250
Form 1628.......................... Informed Consent Briefing.. 200 45 150
Form 1629.......................... Knowledge & Opinion 180 15 45
Questionnaire.
Form 1630.......................... Naturalistic Study......... 180 620 1,860
Enrollment................. .............. 15 ..............
[[Page 66220]]
Vehicle Familiarization.... .............. 60 ..............
Baseline Planned Drive..... .............. 120 ..............
L2 System Familiarization.. .............. 120 ..............
Five Weekly Planned Drives. .............. 150 ..............
Post-Study Planned Drive... .............. 120 ..............
Usability Questionnaire.... .............. 5 ..............
Debriefing................. .............. 30 ..............
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Total.......................... ........................... .............. .............. 2,305
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Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: NHTSA estimates the only cost
burdens to respondents beyond the time spent on data collection
activities are costs related to drives above and beyond their normal
driving required by the study, which impose additional fuel costs.
These cost burdens are expected to be offset by the monetary
compensation that will be provided to all research participants.
Participants will receive $100 after completion of the first session,
$150 after completion of the baseline naturalistic driving, and $200
upon completion of the study. This compensation offsets both the
participants time as well as the additional fuel costs, and the amount
is in line with past similar efforts given the activities it requires
of participants.
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.
Nanda Narayanan Srinivasan,
Associate Administrator, Research and Program Development.
[FR Doc. 2022-23842 Filed 11-1-22; 8:45 am]
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