General Motors, LLC, Grant of Petition for Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance, 35355-35357 [2013-13928]

Agencies

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 113 (Wednesday, June 12, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35355-35357]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-13928]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2012-0006; Notice 2]


General Motors, LLC, Grant of Petition for Decision of 
Inconsequential Noncompliance

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Grant of Petition.

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SUMMARY: General Motors, LLC (GM), has determined that certain model 
year 2012; Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Saab 9-4x 
multipurpose passenger vehicles, and Chevrolet Cruze passenger cars, do 
not fully comply with paragraph Sec.  19.2.2 of Federal Motor Vehicle 
Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection. GM has 
filed an appropriate report pursuant to 49 CFR part 573, Defect and 
Noncompliance Responsibility and Reports, dated September 6, 2011.
    Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and 30120(h) and the rule 
implementing those provisions at 49 CFR part 556, GM has petitioned for 
an exemption from the notification and remedy requirements of 49 U.S.C. 
Chapter 301 on the basis that this noncompliance is inconsequential to 
motor vehicle safety. Notice of receipt of GM's petition was published, 
with a 30-day public comment period, on August 9, 2012, in the Federal 
Register (77 FR 47697). No comments were received. To view the 
petition, the comments, and all supporting documents log onto the 
Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) Web site at: https://www.regulations.gov/. Then follow the online search instructions to 
locate docket number ``NHTSA-2012-0006.''
    For further information on this decision, contact Mr. Charles Case, 
Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, NHTSA, telephone (202) 366-5319.
    Vehicles Involved: Affected are approximately 3,599 Cadillac SRX, 
11,459 Chevrolet Equinox, 5,080 GMC Terrain and 24 Saab 9-4x 
multipurpose passenger vehicles; and 27,392 Chevrolet Cruze passenger 
cars, a total of approximately 47,554 vehicles not in compliance with 
FMVSS No. 208. All of the vehicles are model year 2012 and were 
manufactured within the period from April 6, 2011 through August 20, 
2011.
    Summary of GM's Analysis and Arguments: GM explained that the 
noncompliance is that on rare occasions, the front passenger air bag 
suppression status telltale lamp on the subject vehicles may remain 
illuminated during a particular ignition cycle and indicate that the 
passenger air bag is OFF regardless of whether the air bag is or is not 
suppressed.
    GM further explains that for this noncompliance condition to exist, 
the following must occur:
    (1) The engine must be restarted within approximately 24 seconds of 
having been turned OFF;
    (2) The key \1\ must be turned rapidly, spending less than 10 
milliseconds (0.01 seconds) in the RUN position before it reaches the 
START position; and
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    \1\ Cadillac SRX and Saab 9-4X vehicles have a push button 
start/stop switch.
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    (3) The crank power mode (approximately how long the starter motor 
runs) must be less than 1.2 seconds. GM's data predicts that the 
conditions for a noncompliance to occur will happen, on average, 
approximately once every 18 months, independent of whether the front 
seat is occupied or not.
    GM stated its belief that this noncompliance is inconsequential to 
motor vehicle safety for the following reasons:
    A. The noncompliance does not increase the risk to motor vehicle 
safety because it has no effect on occupant

[[Page 35356]]

restraint. The noncompliant condition has absolutely no effect on the 
proper operation of the occupant classification system. If the telltale 
error occurs when an occupant or a Child Restraint System (CRS) is in 
the front passenger seat, the occupant classification system will 
operate as designed, and will enable or disable the air bag, as 
intended, and continue to meet the requirements of FMVSS No. 208 in all 
other regards. As a result, all occupants will continue to receive the 
benefit of the air bag when they otherwise would, regardless of whether 
or not the telltale is operating properly during a particular ignition 
cycle.
    B. The noncompliance condition is an extremely remote event. The 
noncompliance condition will not occur unless the engine is shut off 
and restarted within about 24 seconds. Even then, the condition will 
not occur unless the ignition key spends less than a hundredth of a 
second in the RUN position before reaching the START position, and the 
crank power mode lasts less than 1.2 seconds. These are very 
prescribed, unusual conditions. GM discovered the condition during an 
assembly plant end of line audit when it was noted that the telltale 
illuminated OFF when an adult passenger was present. GM is not aware of 
any reports in the field about the condition.
    When this condition occurs, it sets a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) 
that is stored in history in the sensing diagnostic module for 100 
ignition cycles. GM reviewed its test fleet experience for the subject 
vehicles, and determined that the conditions needed to produce the 
telltale error will occur on average once every 535 days, or 
approximately, once every 18 months regardless of whether the front 
passenger seat is occupied or not.
    C. Even if the air bag was enabled when the telltale indicated it 
was disabled, that would be extremely unlikely to increase the risk to 
motor vehicle safety. A potential safety risk could exist if the 
telltale indicated the air bag was OFF when the air bag was actually ON 
and a small child or CRS was placed in the front passenger seat. As 
explained in more detail below, this is extremely unlikely to occur in 
the present case. Parents and caregivers are warned to properly 
restrain small children and CRSs in the rear seat, and field data shows 
small children and CRSs are generally not placed in the front seat. In 
addition, GM has conducted significant testing to help assure that the 
air bag suppression system will properly disable the air bag system for 
small children and CRSs, as designed.
    1. Children and CRSs generally are not placed in the front seat. It 
is very unlikely that a small child or a CRS would be placed in the 
front seat since parents and caregivers are routinely advised by NHTSA, 
pediatricians, child safety advocacy groups, and public service 
messages to properly restrain them in the rear seat. As NHTSA states in 
its Child Safety Recommendations for All Ages, ``All children under 13 
should ride in the back seat.''
    In addition, the label on the vehicle's sun visor warns against 
placing a rear facing infant seat in the front passenger seat, and the 
owner's manual warns against placing children in the front seat, as 
well, even for vehicles equipped with a passenger sensing system.
    Publicly available data confirms that parents and caregivers 
generally do not place small children in the front passenger seat. 
According to GM's calculations using National Accident Sampling System 
(NASS) data, six month old, three year old and six year old children 
collectively are likely to occupy the front passenger seat during less 
than one half of one percent of all trips. This fact, together with the 
infrequency with which the noncompliance condition occurs, makes it 
extremely unlikely that a child or CRS would be placed in the front 
seat when the conditions needed to produce the telltale error occur.
    2. Even if a small child or CRS was in the front seat. GM has 
conducted extensive testing to help assure that the air bag suppression 
system will properly characterize these occupants, so that the air bag 
will be suppressed, as designed. GM has had significant field 
experience with suppression systems of the type used in the subject 
vehicles. GM has used pattern recognition based suppression systems 
since 2005 and capacitance based suppression systems since 2009.
    GM has conducted over 15,000 tests of the suppression systems in 
the subject vehicles, based on FMVSS 208 as well as GM's own internal 
requirements, to judge performance for properly positioned as well as 
out of position occupants and CRSs. In each of the over 10,000 tests 
involving the systems in the Cruze, Equinox, Terrain and Saab 9-4X 
vehicles, the suppression system properly characterized the occupant or 
CRS and enabled or disabled the air bag system, as appropriate. The 
same is true in the vast majority of SRX tests.
    In over 5,000 of GM's SRX tests, the air bag system was enabled or 
disabled as desired. In just four of GM's internal (non-FMVSS) SRX 
tests involving three year old dummies in a particular forward facing 
CRSs, the suppression system enabled the air bag. In each of these 
tests, the CRS was installed over a 10 mm thick blanket.
    These tests have no significant bearing on the present risk 
analysis, since more than 98 percent of the tests involving a three 
year old dummy in a forward-facing CRS classified correctly, and in 
each of the discrepant tests, the CRS would classify correctly when 
installed without the blanket.
    There was not a single discrepancy in the over 10,000 tests 
involving the Cruze, Equinox, Terrain and Saab 9-4X vehicles, 
representing over 92 percent of the subject vehicle population. In 
addition, in over 99.8 percent of the SRX tests with CRSs or occupants, 
the air bag system was enabled or disabled, as desired, and in the 
remainder of the CRS tests, the air bag system was properly suppressed 
when the CRS was installed according to the CRS manufacturer's 
instructions.
    The very low rate at which the conditions needed to produce the 
telltale error occur, coupled with the very low chance that a small 
child or CRS would be located in the front seat at that time, makes the 
potential for any safety consequence extremely small. That potential is 
reduced even further since it is extremely unlikely that the 
noncompliance condition would occur at that same time that a CRS is 
being installed in the vehicle, for the first time. Anyone who used 
such a restraint, would in all probability, have received numerous AIR 
BAG ON telltale illuminations before and after the infrequent 
noncompliant OFF illumination, and would have moved the CRS to a rear 
seating location or modified the installation accordingly.
    GM concludes by stating that the telltale error at issue in this 
petition does not increase the risk to motor vehicle safety because it 
has no effect on occupant restraint. The air bag classification system 
will continue to characterize the front seat occupants and enable or 
disable the air bag, as designed. In addition, the noncompliance 
condition will rarely occur. For the error to occur at all, the vehicle 
must be restarted in a very particular manner within less than half of 
one minute of having been turned off. The conditions needed to produce 
the telltale error are estimated to occur approximately once every 18 
months. The potential for any consequence to result is further reduced 
by the fact that the front seat is occupied only about a quarter of the 
time, and by small children and CRSs, much more infrequently. Parental 
and caregiver education and information in the

[[Page 35357]]

vehicle owner's manuals and labels warn against placing infants, 
children and CRSs in the front seat, and NASS data bears out that small 
children and CRSs are placed in the front less than one percent of the 
time. More importantly, GM has conducted more than 10,000 tests 
confirming that the air bag system in over 93 percent of the subject 
vehicles will properly characterize occupants and CRSs, so that the air 
bag will or will not be suppressed, as appropriate. With respect to the 
remaining vehicles, the air bag system was enabled or disabled, as 
desired, over 99.8 percent of the time in GM's testing. Even so, the 
chance that a CRS would be installed in the front seat for the first 
time, at the same time that the noncompliance occurred, would be even 
more remote.
    GM has additionally informed NHTSA that it has corrected the 
noncompliance so that all future production vehicles will comply with 
FMVSS No. 208.
    In summation, GM believes that the described noncompliance of its 
vehicles is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety, and that its 
petition, to exempt from providing recall notification of noncompliance 
as required by 49 U.S.C. 30118 and remedying the recall noncompliance 
as required by 49 U.S.C. 30120 should be granted.
    Background Requirements: Section Sec.  19 of FMVSS No. 208 
specifically states:

    Sec.  19 Requirements to provide protection for infants in rear 
facing and convertible child restraints and car beds.
    Sec.  19.1 Each vehicle certified as complying with Sec.  14 
shall, at the option of the manufacturer, meet the requirements 
specified in Sec.  19.2 or Sec.  19.3, under the test procedures 
specified in Sec.  20.
    Sec.  19.2 Option 1--Automatic suppression feature. Each vehicle 
shall meet the requirements specified in Sec.  19.2.1 through Sec.  
19.2.3. . . .
    Sec.  19.2.2 The vehicle shall be equipped with at least one 
telltale which emits light whenever the passenger air bag system is 
deactivated and does not emit light whenever the passenger air bag 
system is activated, except that the telltale(s) need not illuminate 
when the passenger seat is unoccupied. Each telltale: . . .
    (h) The telltale must not emit light except when the passenger 
air bag is turned off or during a bulb check upon vehicle starting.

    NHTSA Decision: NHTSA has reviewed and accepts GM's analyses that 
the noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. GM 
explained that the front passenger classification and air bag 
suppression system complies with the safety performance requirements of 
the standard except under a very specific and rare set of conditions 
that can occur during an ignition cycle and cause the front passenger 
air bag OFF telltale to remain illuminated. When this occurs, the 
telltale is the only part of the system affected and the occupant 
classification system will continue to operate as designed and will 
enable or disable the air bag as intended. As of May 14, 2013, no 
consumer complaints related to this condition were received by NHTSA 
for the subject vehicles.
    In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA has decided that GM met 
its burden of persuasion that the FMVSS No. 208 noncompliance with 
respect to the front passenger air bag suppression status telltale lamp 
described in GM's Noncompliance Information Report is inconsequential 
to motor vehicle safety. Accordingly, GM's petition is hereby granted 
and the GM is exempted from the obligation of providing notification 
of, and a remedy for, that noncompliance under 49 U.S.C. 30118 and 
30120.
    NHTSA notes that the statutory provisions (49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and 
30120(h)) that permit manufacturers to file petitions for a 
determination of inconsequentiality allow NHTSA to exempt manufacturers 
only from the duties found in sections 30118 and 30120, respectively, 
to notify owners, purchasers, and dealers of a defect or noncompliance 
and to remedy the defect or noncompliance. Therefore, this decision 
only applies to the 47,554 subject vehicles that GM determined were 
noncompliant.

    Authority:  49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120; delegations of authority at 
49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8.

    Issued On: June 3, 2013.
Claude H. Harris,
Director, Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2013-13928 Filed 6-11-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P