Pilot Program for Collaborative Research on Motor Vehicles With High or Full Driving Automation, 50872-50883 [2018-21919]
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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 196 / Wednesday, October 10, 2018 / Proposed Rules
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
11. Executive Order 12630: Evaluation
of Risk and Avoidance of Unanticipated
Takings
[EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0649; FRL–9984–67]
EPA has complied with Executive
Order 12630 (53 FR 8859, March 18,
1988) by examining the takings
implications of this action in
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there are no anticipated significant
adverse human health or environmental
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to Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629,
February 16, 1994).
13. Executive Order 13771: Reducing
Regulations and Controlling Regulatory
Costs
This action is not an Executive Order
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Authority: 42 U.S.C. 6905, 6912(a), 6926,
and 6939g.
Dated: September 18, 2018.
Cathy Stepp,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 2018–21883 Filed 10–9–18; 8:45 am]
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SUMMARY:
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List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 721
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recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: October 1, 2018.
Jeffery T. Morris,
Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and
Toxics.
[FR Doc. 2018–21870 Filed 10–9–18; 8:45 am]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration
49 CFR Parts 555, 571 and 591
[Docket No. NHTSA–2018–0092]
RIN 2127–AL99
Pilot Program for Collaborative
Research on Motor Vehicles With High
or Full Driving Automation
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Advance notice of proposed
rulemaking (ANPRM).
AGENCY:
NHTSA is seeking public
comment on matters related to the nearterm and long-term challenges of
SUMMARY:
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Automated Driving Systems (ADS)
testing, development and eventual
deployment. ADS testing and
development are already underway in
several areas of the United States. As
technology evolves and in anticipation
of requests to test and further develop
high and full ADS, including those in
vehicles without traditional controls
necessary for a human driver, NHTSA is
issuing this ANPRM to obtain public
comments on the factors and structure
that are appropriate for the Agency to
consider in designing a national pilot
program that will enable it to facilitate,
monitor and learn from the testing and
development of the emerging advanced
vehicle safety technologies and to assure
the safety of those activities.
The Agency seeks these comments
from interested stakeholders, including
State and local authorities, companies,
researchers, safety advocates and other
experts interested in, engaged in or
planning to become engaged in the
design, development, testing, and
deployment of motor vehicles with high
and full driving automation. The
Agency also seeks comments from road
users, including vehicle drivers and
passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.
More specifically, NHTSA requests
comments on the following topics
related to ADS safety research. First,
NHTSA seeks comments on potential
factors that should be considered in
designing a pilot program for the safe
on-road testing and deployment of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation and associated equipment.
Second, the Agency seeks comments on
the use of existing statutory provisions
and regulations to allow for the
implementation of such a pilot program.
Third, the Agency seeks comment on
any additional elements of regulatory
relief (e.g., exceptions, exemptions, or
other potential measures) that might be
needed to facilitate the efforts to
participate in the pilot program and
conduct on-road research and testing
involving these vehicles, especially
those that lack controls for human
drivers and thus may not comply with
all existing safety standards. Fourth,
with respect to the granting of
exemptions to enable companies to
participate in such a program, the
Agency seeks comments on the nature
of the safety and any other analyses that
it should perform in assessing the merits
of individual exemption petitions and
on the types of terms and conditions it
should consider attaching to exemptions
to protect public safety and facilitate the
Agency’s monitoring and learning from
the testing and deployment, while
preserving the freedom to innovate.
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By developing a robust record of the
answers to these important questions,
NHTSA expects to learn more about the
progress of ADS and the ways in which
the Agency can facilitate safe and
efficient ADS testing and deployment
for the benefit of individual consumers
and the traveling public as a whole.
DATES: Comments on this document are
due no later than November 26, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be
identified by Docket Number NHTSA–
2018–0092 and may be submitted using
any of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Docket Management Facility,
U.S. Department of Transportation,
Room W12–140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590–
0001.
• Hand Delivery or Courier: West
Building, Ground Floor, Room W12–
140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m. E.T., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
• Fax: 1–202–493–2251.
Regardless of how you submit your
comments, you must include the docket
number identified in the heading of this
document. Note that all comments
received, including any personal
information provided, will be posted
without change to https://
www.regulations.gov. Please see the
‘‘Privacy Act’’ heading below.
You may call the Docket Management
Facility at 202–366–9826.
Docket: For access to the docket to
read background documents or
comments received, go to https://
www.regulations.gov or the street
address listed above. We will continue
to file relevant information in the
Docket as it becomes available.
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5
U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments
from the public to better inform its
rulemaking process. DOT posts these
comments, without edit, to
www.regulations.gov, as described in
the system of records notice, DOT/ALL–
14 FDMS, accessible through
www.dot.gov/privacy. In order to
facilitate comment tracking and
response, we encourage commenters to
provide their name, or the name of their
organization; however, submission of
names is completely optional. Whether
or not commenters identify themselves,
all timely comments will be fully
considered. If you wish to provide
comments containing proprietary or
confidential information, please contact
the agency for alternate submission
instructions.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For research and pilot program issues:
Dee Williams, Office of Vehicle Safety
Research, (202) 366–8537,
Dee.Williams@dot.gov, National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20590–0001.
For legal issues: Stephen Wood,
Assistant Chief Counsel, Vehicle
Rulemaking and Harmonization, Office
of Chief Counsel, 202–366–2992, email
steve.wood@dot.gov, National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC
20590–0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Background and Overview
II. NHTSA’s Safety Mission, Authority and
Programmatic Needs With Respect to
ADS
A. NHTSA Has Authority Over All Aspects
of ADS
B. NHTSA’s Flexibility To Develop and
Implement Non-Traditional Standards
for ADS
C. Research Is Needed To Generate Data on
ADS
D. Regulatory Relief May Be Needed To
Facilitate Research Involving Vehicles
With High and Full Driving Automation
E. A Pilot Program Could Provide Relief
and Promote Research on Ads
III. Pilot Program for the Safe Testing and
Deploying of Vehicles With High and
Full Driving Automation
A. Considerations in Designing a Pilot
Program
1. Vehicle Design for Safe Operation
2. Vehicle Design for Risk Mitigation
3. Vehicle Design Safety Elements
4. Data and Reporting
5. Additional Considerations in Pilot
Program Design
6. Issues Relating To Establishing a Pilot
Program
i. Applications for Participation and
Potential Terms of Participation
ii. Potential Categories of Data To Be
Provided by Program Participants
B. Use of Exemptions To Provide
Regulatory Relief for Pilot Program
Participants
1. Exemptions From Prohibitions
Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30113
2. Exemptions From Prohibitions
Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30114
3. Exemption From Rendering Inoperative
Prohibition
4. Other Potential Obstacles
IV. Confidentiality of Information Provided
by Program Participants
V. Next Steps
VI. Regulatory Notices
VII. Public Comment
I. Background and Overview
As the Federal agency charged with
improving motor vehicle safety through
reducing crashes, and preventing deaths
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and injuries from crashes, NHTSA is
encouraged by the new ADS vehicle
technologies being developed and
implemented by automobile
manufacturers and other innovators.
NHTSA anticipates that automation can
serve a vital safety role on our Nation’s
roads, particularly since human error
and choice are currently the critical
factors behind the occurrence of a large
number of crashes. ADS vehicle
technologies possess the potential to
save thousands of lives, as well as
reduce congestion, enhance mobility,
and improve productivity.
To aid in determining how best to
foster the safe development and
The purpose of this ANPRM is to
obtain public views and suggestions for
steps that NHTSA can take to facilitate,
monitor and learn from on-road research
through the safe testing and eventual
deployment of high and full automated
vehicles, i.e., Level 4 and 5 1 ADS
vehicles, primarily through a pilot
program.
To explain these levels of automation
and put them in context with the other
levels defined by SAE (Society of
Automotive Engineers) International in
Table 1 of SAE J3016,2 the Agency
provides the following simplified
description of the full array of levels:
Level of automation
What does the vehicle do, what does the human driver/occupant do, and when and where do they do it?
Level 0 ............................................
No Automation of driving task: While the vehicle may provide warnings (e.g., forward collision warning and
blind-spot warning), the human driver must in all conditions and at all times perform all aspects of the
driving task like monitoring the driving environment, steering, braking and accelerating.
Driver Assistance: The vehicle may have some features that can automatically assist the human driver
with either steering (e.g., lane keeping assist) or braking/accelerating (e.g., adaptive cruise control), but
not with both simultaneously. The human driver performs all other aspects of the driving task like monitoring the driving environment, steering, braking and accelerating.
Partial Driving Automation: The vehicle has combined automated functions, like speed control and steering
simultaneously, but the driver must remain engaged with the driving task by controlling the other elements of driving, monitoring the driving environment at all times, and being ready to take over immediately if conditions exceed the capabilities of the vehicle’s automated functions.
Conditional Driving Automation: The vehicle can perform most aspects of the driving task, including monitoring the driving environment and making decisions, under some conditions (e.g., speeds under a set
threshold). The presence of a human driver is still a necessity, but is not required to monitor the driving
environment when the ADS is engaged and operating in those conditions. The driver must always be
ready to intervene and take control of the vehicle when the ADS gives the driver notice to do so or the
vehicle experiences a driving-task-related failure.
High Driving Automation: The vehicle can perform most aspects of the driving task under certain conditions
without the involvement of or oversight by a human driver. Outside of those conditions, the vehicle will
enter a safe fallback mode if a human occupant does not resume control. The vehicle may or may not
be designed to allow a human occupant to assume control.
Full Driving Automation: The vehicle can perform all aspects of the driving task at all times and under all
conditions. While the human occupants need to set the trip destination and start the ADS, they need
never be involved in any aspects of the driving task. The vehicle may or may not be designed to allow a
human occupant to assume control.
Level 1 ............................................
Level 2 ............................................
Level 3 ............................................
Level 4 ............................................
Level 5 ............................................
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implementation of ADS vehicle
technologies on our Nation’s roadways,
NHTSA believes it is prudent to
facilitate the conducting of research and
gathering of data about these new and
developing technologies in their various
iterations and configurations. Thus,
NHTSA is seeking comment on creating
a national ADS vehicle pilot program for
the testing of vehicles and associated
equipment and to gather data from such
testing, including data generated in realworld scenarios. NHTSA anticipates
that this data will provide information
needed to help realize the promises and
meet the challenges of ADS vehicle
development and deployment.
This ANPRM is the latest effort by
DOT and NHTSA to address issues
relating to the testing and deployment of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation. Automated Driving Systems
2.0: A Vision for Safety (‘‘A Vision for
Safety’’), issued by DOT in September
2017, included guidance to
manufacturers and other entities seeking
to document for themselves how they
are addressing safety. It further outlined
a summary document that they could
use to disclose their voluntary safety
self-assessments to the public in order
to describe to the public, to
stakeholders, and to Federal, State and
local governments the manufacturers’
approach to assuring safe testing and
development.
1 See
table below for explanations of these terms.
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In a separate notice published in
January 2018,3 the Agency took the next
step by publishing a request for public
comments to identify any regulatory
barriers in the existing Federal motor
vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) to the
testing, compliance certification and
compliance verification of automated
motor vehicles. In that notice, NHTSA
focused primarily, but not exclusively,
on vehicles with certain unconventional
interior designs, such as those that lack
controls for a human driver; e.g.,
steering wheel, brake pedal or
accelerator pedal. The absence of
manual driving controls, and thus of a
human driver, poses potential barriers
to testing, compliance certification and
compliance verification. Further, the
compliance test procedures of some
2 SAE J3016_201806 Taxonomy and Definitions
for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems
for On-Road Motor Vehicles.
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FMVSS depend on the presence of such
things as a human test driver who can
follow test instructions or a steering
wheel that can be used by an automated
steering mechanism. In addressing all of
these issues, the Agency’s focus will be
on ensuring the maintenance of
currently required levels of safety
performance.
This ANPRM focuses on the related
question of how the Agency can best
encourage and facilitate the necessary
research to allow for the development
and establishment, as needed, of
standards for ADS vehicles, including
vehicles that have unconventional
designs, can operate in ‘‘dual modes’’
(one of which may involve
unconventional designs), and can
comply with the existing FMVSS.
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FR 2607, January 18, 2018.
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NHTSA believes that in order to
anticipate, identify and address
potential safety concerns and realize the
full promise of ADS, it is vital that the
developers of vehicles with high and
full driving automation have broad
opportunities to gain practical, real
world experience, in locations of their
choosing, with different approaches to,
and combinations of, hardware and
software in order to learn which
approaches and combinations offer the
greatest levels of safety and reliability.
Simulated testing, or testing in
laboratory or other controlled settings is
very beneficial, but NHTSA also
recognizes the importance of preparing
for a world in which ADS vehicles
operate on a broad scale on our Nation’s
roads under a vast array of complex and
changing road, traffic and weather
conditions. ADS must be able to operate
in and adapt to such conditions, just as
human drivers must when driving their
vehicles today. On-the-road testing and
evaluation of ADS vehicles will be
critical to the successful development
and integration of these vehicles into
the roads and highways throughout the
country.
Based on the foregoing, NHTSA is
considering the establishment of a
national pilot research program. The
Agency emphasizes that it has not made
any decisions whether to establish a
pilot program or how to structure one.
For this reason, it cannot currently
estimate the timing, cost or duration of
a pilot program. After analyzing the
public comments on this ANPRM and
other available information, NHTSA
will further assess the prospects for
implementing a viable and effective
program and identify the best approach
to structuring one.
I. NHTSA’s Safety Mission, Authority,
and Programmatic Needs With Respect
to ADS
NHTSA, an operating administration
within DOT, was established, as a
successor to the National Highway
Safety Bureau, by the Highway Safety
Act of 1970 to carry out safety programs
under the National Traffic and Motor
Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (‘‘the Act’’)
and the Highway Safety Act of 1966.
The Act directs the Department of
Transportation ‘‘(1) to prescribe motor
vehicle safety standards for motor
vehicles and motor vehicle equipment
in interstate commerce; and (2) to carry
out needed safety research and
development.’’ 4
Its vehicle safety mission is to save
lives and prevent injuries due to road
traffic crashes through a variety of
4 49
U.S.C. 30101.
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means. More specifically, the Agency
carries out its vehicle safety mission by:
• Collecting real world data on the
safety of motor vehicles and items of
motor vehicle equipment;
• Conducting safety research;
• Setting FMVSS for new motor
vehicles and motor vehicle equipment
(to which manufacturers must certify
compliance before sale or introduction
into interstate commerce).
• Enforcing compliance with the
standards;
• Investigating and overseeing the
recall and remedy of noncompliant
products and products containing
safety-related defects;
• Communicating with and educating
the public about motor vehicle safety
issues through comparative performance
ratings and other means; and
• Issuing guidance for vehicle and
equipment manufacturers to follow on
important issues affecting safety.
In addition, NHTSA works with State
highway safety agencies and other
partners under the Highway Safety Act
to encourage the safe behavior of
drivers, occupants, cyclists, and
pedestrians across the country.
A. NHTSA Has Authority Over All
Aspects of ADS Design
NHTSA’s authority over ADS is broad
and clear. The Act obligates NHTSA to
regulate the safety of motor vehicles and
motor vehicle equipment.5 ‘‘Motor
vehicle equipment’’ is defined broadly
enough to include both tangible
components, e.g., hardware, and
intangible components, e.g., software, of
modern electronic motor vehicle
systems.6 Both types of components,
working in combination, are
indispensable to the functioning of
modern vehicle electronic systems and
critical to the future safety of the motor
vehicle occupants, cyclists and
pedestrians.7 Indeed, without their
software components, these electronic
systems would not be systems; instead,
they would be nonfunctional
assemblages of hardware components.
5 49
U.S.C. 30111(a).
U.S.C. 30102(a)(6) and (7).
7 Transportation Research Board Special Report
308, The Safety Promise and Challenge of
Automotive Electronics: Insights from Unintended
Acceleration, 2012. The Board is part of the
National Research Council which is, in turn, part
of the National Academies. This report describes
the challenges presented by electronic systems and
what the report terms their ‘‘hardware components’’
and ‘‘software components.’’ (P. 87). It is available
on a number of online sites, including https://
onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr308.pdf and
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13342/trb-specialreport-308-the-safety-challenge-and-promise-ofautomotive-electronics and https://www.omg.org/
hot-topics/documents/Safety-Promise-andChallenge-of-Automotive-Electronics-TRB-2012.pdf.
6 49
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Hardware and software components are
also at the heart of each building block
technology for vehicle automation and
are indispensable to the combining of
the technologies in ADS vehicles.
As technology has evolved, NHTSA
has responded to Congressional
mandates to use its authority to specify
how and when the hardware
components of electronic systems such
as air bags, anti-lock braking systems
and electronic stability control systems
must activate and perform. This
approach gives manufacturers freedom
to develop the software components
needed to control the performance of
each system’s hardware components.
NHTSA has also repeatedly exercised its
authority under the Act when the
software and/or hardware components
of computerized electronics have been
the subject of safety defect recall and
remedy campaigns. Software updates
have been the remedy for software
found to contain a safety defect.8
NHTSA is also authorized to regulate
certain other software, specifically,
software that has functionality similar to
that of the software in either a vehicle
manufacturer’s key fob/smart key or
even some of the systems integrated into
some current vehicles.9 Some of this
software, e.g., that for remotely starting
a vehicle’s engine, affects motor vehicle
systems only when the vehicles are
parked, i.e., in circumstances called
‘‘nonoperational’’ safety. Other software,
e.g., forward crash warning and remote
automated parking systems, affects
motor vehicles when they are moving,
i.e., ‘‘operational’’ safety. The Act’s
definition of ‘‘motor vehicle safety’’
encompasses both aspects of safety.10
B. NHTSA’s Flexibility To Develop and
Implement Non-Traditional Standards
for ADS
NHTSA’s primary exercise of its
regulatory authority involves the
development and establishment of the
FMVSS.11 Under the Act, NHTSA’s
8 To find vehicle safety recalls involving software,
search for ‘‘software’’ in the monthly NHTSA
recalls reports on the following web page, Monthly
Reports: Recalls and Investigations, available at
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/
monthlyreports.cfm. See also May 2016 report by
J.D. Power that it had conducted an analysis of
recalls under the Act showing that ‘‘(t)o date, 189
separate software recalls have been issued in the
past 5 years, affecting more than 13 million
vehicles. According to manufacturer analyses, 141
presented a risk of crashing; 44 could have resulted
in injury.’’ The results of this analysis may be found
at https://www.jdpower.com/cars/articles/safetyand-mpg/record-numbers-software-complaints-andrecalls-threaten-trust.
9 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(8).
10 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(9).
11 It is important to note that, even in the absence
of standards, ADS-equipped vehicles must still be
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FMVSS must meet a variety of
requirements.12 They must be
performance-oriented. They must be
practicable, both technologically and
economically. They must be objective,
meaning that they must be capable of
producing identical results when tests
are conducted in identical conditions
and compliance must be based on
scientific measurements, not subjective
opinion. Finally, they must meet the
need for safety.
The FMVSS can address all aspects
and phases of ensuring that new motor
vehicles are designed and perform
safely. NHTSA can establish crash
avoidance standards to reduce the
chance that a vehicle will become
involved in a crash or cause another
vehicle to become involved in crash or
reduce the severity of crashes that
cannot be avoided. Likewise, NHTSA
can issue crashworthiness standards
requiring that a vehicle be designed so
that its occupants are less likely to be
seriously injured in a crash and so that
it is less likely to cause injury to the
occupants of other vehicles or other
roadway users such as pedestrians and
cyclists. In addition, NHTSA can issue
standards for post-crash safety, such as
minimizing the risk of electrical fires.
NHTSA believes that the FMVSS
structure has the necessary flexibility to
regulate the design and performance of
ADS appropriately. Although the
existing FMVSS rely on physical tests
and measurements to evaluate safety
performance, there is no requirement in
the Act that they rely exclusively or
even at all on such tests and
measurements so long as they are
objective and meet the other statutory
requirements. In the future, other
approaches such as simulation and
requirements expressed in terms of
mathematical functions might be
considered.13
In addition, because the software
environment is likely to evolve and
change at a rapid rate, NHTSA
recognizes that it will need a new
approach to the development and
drafting of FMVSS, especially any
FMVSS that might be established for
ADS. The accelerating pace of
technological change is incompatible
with lengthy rulemaking proceedings
that last at least 6–8 years from
free from unreasonable risks to safety; if such risks
do exist, the vehicle, component, or accessory
would be subject to NHTSA’s defect authority. See
NHTSA Enforcement Guidance Bulletin 2016–02:
Safety-Related Defects and Automated Safety
Technologies, 81 FR 65705, September 23, 2016.
12 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(10), 30111(a).
13 NHTSA notes that its Corporate Average Fuel
Economy Standards are required to be stated in
terms of a mathematical function. 49 U.S.C.
32902(b)(3)(A).
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initiating rulemaking to conducting
research to translating the research
results into regulatory text to
conducting and completing a notice and
comment rulemaking. Further, the
FMVSS of the future will need to be
reconceptualized, developed and
drafted so that they are nimbler, more
performance-oriented and thus more
accommodating of anticipated and
continued rapid technological change
than has generally been the case for the
FMVSS to date.
Similarly, although existing FMVSS
generally address specific predictable
events (e.g., stopping and turning safely
on low friction surfaces, specific types
of crashes), it may be desirable, even
necessary, to meet the need for safety,
for future FMVSS focused on ADS
technologies to also address the
common, yet unpredictable, events that
occur in real-world driving, e.g., the one
person among crowds of people
standing on two or more corners of an
intersection who suddenly decides to
cross the street, the approaching vehicle
that suddenly turns left, the parked
vehicle that suddenly leaves its parking
place, and the vehicle that suddenly
emerges from a blind alley or other
obscured location. Test procedures
could replicate those events, including
their unpredictability. A degree of
unpredictability might be accomplished
by varying the location of standardized
surrogate vehicles, cyclists and
pedestrians on a test course and the
sequence in which they are encountered
during testing. A sufficient degree of
randomization could help avoid the
risks that using a completely predictable
test procedure might create, i.e., that a
test vehicle could be programmed to
anticipate the predictable encounters
with surrogate objects and avoid a
collision with them by being preprogrammed to do so, not by relying on
its sensors and decision-making
algorithms.
Further, future FMVSS could test the
ability of ADS vehicles to monitor not
only simple scenarios involving a single
surrogate pedestrian or vehicle, but also
more complex and realistic scenarios
involving multiple surrogate pedestrians
and vehicles and their ability to identify
and respond appropriately to all
surrogate pedestrians and vehicles
without the ADS vehicles’ knowing in
advance precisely which pedestrian or
vehicle would move and when into
their path.
Finally, future FMVSS could be
drafted in more technology-neutral
performance terms than many of the
existing technology-specific FMVSS.
This approach may allow for the
development and deployment of
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cutting-edge technology, as long as
FMVSS performance mandates are
satisfied. This approach could allow for
testing and deployment of critical safety
equipment without requiring timeconsuming regulatory amendments to
respond to changes in technology.
C. Research Is Needed To Generate Data
on ADS
In order to establish standards that
ensure safety without jeopardizing
innovation, NHTSA must conduct
significant research, as well as leverage
research conducted by outside entities,
including industry and universities.
When the Act was enacted, Congress
recognized the importance of research,
development, testing, and evaluation,
and provided ‘‘broad authority to
initiate and conduct’’ those activities.14
Additionally, Congress recognized that
safety standards ‘‘cannot be set in a
vacuum. They must be based on reliable
information and research.’’ 15
In the Moving Ahead for Progress in
the 21st Century Act,16 Congress
reiterated and strengthened NHTSA’s
role in conducting research, particularly
in areas of innovative technology, and
directed that ‘‘[t]he Secretary of
Transportation shall conduct research,
development, and testing on any area or
aspect of motor vehicle safety necessary
to carry out this chapter.’’ 17 In carrying
out this directive, Congress instructed
the Secretary to ‘‘[c]onduct motor
vehicle safety research, development,
and testing programs and activities,
including activities related to new and
emerging technologies that impact or
may impact motor vehicle safety’’ and to
‘‘[c]ollect and analyze all types of motor
vehicle and highway safety data’’
relating to motor vehicle performance
and crashes.18 Further, the Secretary
was given broad authority to ‘‘enter into
cooperative agreements, collaborative
research, or contracts with Federal
agencies, interstate authorities, State
and local governments, other public
entities, private organizations and
persons,’’ and other appropriate
institutions.19
To aid in determining how best to
foster the safe introduction of vehicles
with high and full driving automation
onto our Nation’s roadways, NHTSA
seeks to facilitate research and data
gathering involving these new and
developing technologies in their various
iterations and configurations. The
14 S.
Rep. No. 89–1301, at 9 (June 23, 1966).
Rep. No. 89–1776, at 11 (July 28, 1966);
see also S. Rep. No. 89–1301, at 9.
16 Public Law 112–141.
17 49 U.S.C. 30181.
18 49 U.S.C. 30182(a) (emphasis added).
19 Id. at § 30182(b)(5).
15 H.R.
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Agency wants the entities involved in
this research to gain practical, real
world experience to determine the best
approaches to enhancing safety. This
research is expected to generate the data
needed to assist in developing methods
of validating the safety performance of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation. NHTSA recognizes both the
safety potential of ADS and the need to
ensure that all testing and operation of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation are conducted in a manner
that ensures the appropriate levels of
safety for everyone involved—and most
importantly, all roadway users.
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D. Regulatory Relief May Be Needed To
Facilitate Research Involving Vehicles
With High and Full Driving Automation
In the separate notice on barriers
mentioned above, NHTSA stated that it
believes that vehicles with traditional
interior designs, e.g., ones including
steering wheels and foot pedals, that
meet the existing FMVSS would still
comply with the FMVSS even if those
vehicles were designed to be operated as
vehicles with high and full driving
automation. However, vehicles with
high and full driving automation that do
not have traditional designs might not
meet the existing FMVSS and would,
therefore, require an exemption.
NHTSA’s statutes provide two separate
avenues under sections 30113 and
30114 20 for an exemption of vehicles
that do not comply with the standards
and another process designed for
vehicles that would initially comply
with the standard, but also may need
exemptions if they operate in ‘‘dual
modes,’’ one of which could run afoul
of NHTSA’s ‘‘make inoperative’’
prohibition.21 Under both types of
exemptions, NHTSA may set terms by
which the exempted entity must abide.
In this document, NHTSA announces
that it is contemplating creating an ADS
vehicle pilot research program for the
testing of vehicles and associated
equipment and gathering of data from
20 49 U.S.C. 30113 and 30114. These two sections,
including relevant statutory text, are discussed
below in parts III.B.1 and III.B.2 of this ANPRM.
21 Certain ADS vehicles that do not comply with
existing standards are currently allowed to be
introduced into interstate commerce if they meet
the requirements in section 30112(b)(10). The
section excepts motor vehicles from the prohibition
in section 30112(a)(1) against introducing a
noncompliant motor vehicle into commerce, but,
among other constraints, only if the vehicle is
introduced by a manufacturer solely for the purpose
of its being tested and evaluated on public roads,
only for vehicle manufacturers that manufactured
and distributed compliant vehicles in the United
States before December 4, 2015, and only if those
vehicles are not sold after the conclusion of testing.
Importantly, then, this exception is limited in both
which manufacturers can take advantage of it and
what can be done while using it.
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such testing, including in real-world
scenarios, which the Agency would
consider as setting the terms of the
exemptions. NHTSA anticipates that
these data will provide needed
information that will better enable the
public and private sectors to realize the
promises and overcome the challenges
of vehicles with high and full driving
automation.
E. A Pilot Program Can Provide Relief
and Promote Research on ADS
To summarize, NHTSA’s authority
covers all relevant aspects of ADS
design, including vehicles with high
and full driving automation. NHTSA,
therefore, has an affirmative duty to
establish the measures necessary to
ensure the safe design and operation of
these types of vehicles. However, to do
so in a way that actually achieves those
safety goals and does not unnecessarily
impede innovation requires significant
research on these cutting-edge issues.
Due to the complexity of real-world
driving, this research cannot simply be
done in laboratories or other highly
controlled testing environments and,
instead, part of it must be done on
public roads with real driving
conditions. To help ensure that this
testing is being done safely and with an
eye towards developing the data
necessary to support such future
standards as may be needed, NHTSA is
considering establishing a pilot program
for vehicles with high and full driving
automation for entities wishing to
engage in the testing or, in some cases,
deployment of vehicles with high and
full driving automation that would
require some type of an exemption from
NHTSA’s existing standards. The
Agency believes that such a program
could aid developers of vehicles with
high and full driving automation in
testing and deploying their vehicles
across the country in a wide variety of
scenarios, e.g., different climates,
weather patterns, topographical
features, road systems, population and
traffic densities, etc.
III. Pilot Program for the Safe Testing
and Deployment of Vehicles With High
and Full Driving Automation
Technological innovations in
automotive transportation are diverse
and evolving quickly in the United
States and abroad. The potential safety
benefits that could result from
deploying vehicles with high and full
driving automation justify a considered
approach at the Federal, State and local
levels to the design and implementation
of pilot programs for the safe testing,
learning and eventual deploying of
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these vehicles, including on public
roadways.
Safety is a primary concern and is the
primary mission of NHTSA. The
issuance of this ANPRM on pilot
program design is intended to stimulate
public discussion of both safety aspects
of new technology testing and
development, as well as approaches to
learning from pilot programs for
technological improvement and
eventual deployment. NHTSA
acknowledges that there are also
mobility, efficiency and accessibility
opportunities associated with ADS and
that infrastructure could play a key role
in the broader operational availability of
these technologies. Numerous
companies, researchers, safety
advocates, State and local governments,
and other stakeholders are engaged in,
planning to become engaged in or
otherwise interested in the design,
development, testing, and deployment
of vehicles with high and full driving
automation. NHTSA recognizes that it is
restricted in its ability to apply
requirements to certain manufacturers
testing vehicles on public highways if
the manufacturers agree not to offer for
sale or sell those vehicles.22 Discussion
of pilot program design and
implementation does not assume that
such regulatory and statutory limits are
either appropriate or necessary, but
rather that pilot programs might require
NHTSA to address certain barriers.
Further, pilot programs should
anticipate the need to coordinate
Federal, State and local governments’
responsibilities and efforts and should
recognize other Federal agencies, and
State and local governments are
effective sources of information needed
for risk management as ADS technology
approaches deployment. State and local
governments have traditionally played
important roles in motor vehicle and
road safety, through enforcement, traffic
management and planning, research,
and much more. It is critical to NHTSA
to partner effectively with State and
local governments to permit them to
continue these important functions
while the Agency works collaboratively
to facilitate the safe and efficient
deployment of ADS technology.
Finally, at this stage, NHTSA is only
considering a pilot program for lightduty vehicles; to the extent the Agency
will consider establishing future pilot
projects for other motor vehicles, such
as truck tractors or buses, it will do so
in coordination with the other relevant
operating administrations within the
Department.
Questions.
22 49
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In furtherance of the goals of this
ANPRM, NHTSA requests interested
persons to answer a variety of questions
about the structure of a national pilot
program and about the types of
regulatory relief that may be needed to
make such a program successful. The
views and information provided in
response to those that will aid the
Agency in deciding whether to create a
national program and, if so, how to do
so.
Guidance on answering questions.
In responding to each question, please
provide data, analyses, research reports
or other justification to support your
response. In addition, please respond to
the questions and requests in the same
sequence in which they appear below
and include the number of each
question and request.
Question 1. What potential factors
should be considered in designing the
structure of a pilot program that would
enable the Agency to facilitate, monitor
and learn from on-road research through
the safe testing and eventual
deployment of vehicles with high and
full driving automation and associated
equipment?
Question 2. If NHTSA were to create
a pilot program, how long would there
be a need for such a program? What
number of vehicles should be involved?
Should NHTSA encourage the
conducting of research projects in
multiple locations with different
weather conditions, topographical
features, traffic densities, etc.?
Question 3. What specific difficulties
should be addressed in designing a
national vehicle pilot program for
vehicles with high and full driving
automation either through the
exemption request process relevant for
FMVSS or more broadly related to other
areas of NHTSA and/or other
authorities.
Question 4. How can existing
statutory provisions and regulations be
more effectively used in implementing
such a pilot program?
Question 5. Are there any additional
elements of regulatory relief (e.g.,
exceptions, exemptions, or other
potential measures) that might be
needed to facilitate the efforts to
participate in the pilot program and
conduct on-road research and testing
involving these vehicles, especially
those that lack controls for human
drivers and thus may not comply with
all existing FMVSS?
A. Considerations in Designing the Pilot
Program
NHTSA believes that a safe and
effective pilot program for vehicles with
high and full driving automation would
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necessarily address each of the
following critical areas: (1) Vehicle
design for safe operation; (2) vehicle
design for risk mitigation in the event of
an unplanned event; (3) vehicle design
for intended operating conditions; and
(4) data reporting and information
sharing to identify and mitigate risks
identified during the pilot program.
1. Vehicle Design for Safe Operation
As described above, NHTSA has long
assessed vehicle attributes for safe
operation under reasonably anticipated
conditions. Such an assessment has
historically included detailed elements
of structural integrity and design, as
well as hardware, software and
telecommunications elements that
contribute to either operational or
nonoperational vehicle safety.
NHTSA believes that vehicles with
high and full driving automation
participating in pilot programs for
testing and evaluation and eventual
deployment should continue to meet
most FMVSS for the protection of
vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and
other vulnerable road users. However,
in the case of certain elements, safety
might be enhanced through approaches
different than those contained in the
current FMVSS, given that they were
developed for vehicles designed only for
human operation.
As noted above, NHTSA has issued a
Request for Comment regarding those
provisions in the FMVSS that may pose
barriers for the design, testing and
deployment of some safe vehicles with
high and full driving automation.
Question 6. What vehicle design
elements might replace existing
required safety equipment and/or
otherwise enhance vehicle safety under
reasonably anticipated operating
conditions?
2. Vehicle Design for Risk Mitigation
As described in section I (overview)
above, the primary difference between
lower level driving automation systems
and high and full driving automation
systems is the reliance in the latter
systems on the vehicle to perform all
driving functions in at least certain
circumstances. It is anticipated that
vehicles with high and full driving
automation will accomplish this
through the combination of highly
sophisticated detection systems,
systems for digital interpretation of
detected objects, data retention and
processing, communication protocols,
and highly sophisticated decisionmaking software. Together, this
combination of functions is intended to
replace and improve upon the ability of
human drivers to detect, interpret,
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communicate and react to vehicle
operational needs and conditions.
Some vehicles with high driving
automation will require an additional
design consideration to address humanmachine interface when operating
outside of their Operational Design
Domain.23 Specifically, given the
reliance of those vehicles on vehicle,
and not human, systems, the design of
those vehicles should account for both
the vehicle and human elements of any
transition from one type of driver
(human or vehicle) to another type of
driver (vehicle or human).
In A Vision for Safety, the Department
of Transportation described a voluntary
safety self-disclosure approach
recommended to innovators seeking to
test and deploy vehicles with high and
full driving automation on public
roadways.
NHTSA’s existing authorities under
the Act, e.g., provisions concerning
research, standard setting and consumer
information, are adequate for NHTSA to
evaluate and recommend protocols to
ensure the safety of vehicle design for
risk mitigation. In fact, NHTSA has
already developed and adopted
protocols for a wide variety of
technologies for use in either the
FMVSS or the New Car Assessment
Program. Examples include anti-lock
braking systems, electronic stability
control, automatic emergency braking,
and lane departure warning.
Furthermore, NHTSA’s authorities
supporting the current FMVSS program
are adequate and appropriate for
developing very broadly drafted safety
performance standards that might be
necessary for the eventual safe
widespread deployment on public
roadways of vehicles with high and full
driving automation. Such performance
standards should allow for
unencumbered innovation where such
innovation provides equivalent or
improved safety for future
transportation designs when compared
to the safety of human drivers. For
example, future performance-based
standards might include standards and
testing for safe lane change performance
on highways, hazard detection and
avoidance in urban environments, or
collision avoidance on rural highways.
Question 7. What types of
performance measures should be
considered to ensure safety while
allowing for innovation of emerging
23 The Operational Design Domain describes the
specific conditions under which a given ADS or
feature is intended to function. More specifically,
it defines where (such as what roadway types and
speeds) and when (under what conditions, such as
day/night, weather limits, etc.) an ADS is designed
to operate.
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technology in vehicles with high and
full driving automation participating in
a pilot program?
3. Vehicle Design Safety Elements
A Vision for Safety seeks to help
designers of ADS to analyze, identify,
and resolve safety considerations prior
to deployment by using their own,
industry, and other best practices. It
outlines 12 safety elements, which the
Agency believes represent the
consensus across the industry, that are
generally considered to be the most
salient design aspects to consider and
address when developing, testing, and
deploying ADS on public roadways.
Within each safety design element,
entities are encouraged to consider and
document for themselves their use of
industry standards, best practices,
company policies, or other methods
they have employed to provide for
increased system safety in real-world
conditions.
For example, vehicles with high and
full driving automation are currently
tested and deployed in carefully riskmanaged phases to allow for safe
operation during development of
increasingly complex systems. As
described in A Vision for Safety, the
circumstances in which the automated
operation of a vehicle is enabled are set
forth in the vehicle’s Operational Design
Domain.
NHTSA believes that any pilot
program for the testing of vehicles with
high and full driving automation should
include defined Operational Design
Domains as a component of safe
automated vehicle operation. Examples
of an Operational Design Domain
include, but are not limited to,
geographic, environmental or other
conditions in which the vehicle is
designed to operate, detect and respond
safely to a variety of normal and
unexpected objects and events, and to
fall back to a minimal risk condition in
the event that the ADS fails or that the
ADS encounters conditions outside the
Operational Design Domain.
NHTSA has historically regulated the
enabling conditions for safety systems,
such as air bags, anti-lock brakes and
electronic stability control, that are
designed to intervene when certain
conditions, and only those conditions,
exist. NHTSA believes that the critical
relationship between the safety of a
vehicle’s design and the vehicle’s
decision-making system similarly makes
it necessary to evaluate the safety of
automated vehicle performance in light
of appropriate and well-defined
Operational Design Domains. For
example, if a vehicle is capable of safely
operating automatically only at speeds
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below 30 mph, NHTSA might consider
whether it would be appropriate to
require that the vehicle be designed so
that it cannot operate automatically at
speeds of 30 mph or more unless and
until it acquires the capability (e.g.,
through software updates) of safely
operating automatically above that
speed. Similarly, if a vehicle would
become incapable of operating safely if
one or more of its sensors became nonfunctional, NHTSA might consider
whether it would be appropriate to
require that the vehicle be designed so
that it cannot operate automatically in
those circumstances.
State and local authorities also have a
role to play. Through establishing and
enforcing their rules of the road, these
authorities have traditionally controlled
such operational matters as the speed at
which vehicles may be driven and the
condition of certain types of safety
equipment such as head and tail lights.
In the future, it is reasonable to expect
that these authorities may establish new
rules of the road to address ADS
vehicles specifically. While NHTSA
might require the manufacturers of these
vehicles to design them so that their
vehicles know the State and locality in
which they are operating and what the
rules of the road are for that location
and so that they observe those rules, the
States and localities would enforce
those rules if broken.
Question 8. How should the
Operational Design Domains of
individual vehicle models be defined
and reinforced and how should Federal,
State and local authorities work together
to ensure that they are observed?
4. Data and Reporting
The purpose of a pilot program is to
allow for safe on-road testing and onroad learning in order to provide
feedback for further safe development.
An important element of any pilot
program is the creation, sharing and
appropriate use of performance data to
allow constant improvement to the test
technology and improved risk
management.
NHTSA believes that the novel
challenge of assessing the safety of the
emerging technologies in vehicles with
high and full driving automation
requires a commitment to timely and
accurate data reporting and analysis.
Question 9. What type and amount of
data should participants be expected to
share with NHTSA and/or with the
public for the safe testing of vehicles
with high and full driving automation
and how frequently should the sharing
occur?
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Question 10. In the design of a pilot
program, how should NHTSA address
the following issues—
a. confidential business information?
b. privacy?
c. data storage and transmission?
d. data retention and reporting?
e. other elements necessary for testing
and deployment?
5. Additional Considerations in Pilot
Program Design
NHTSA seeks comments on whether
there are additional critical areas to
consider in the design of a safe pilot
program for the testing and deployment
of vehicles with high and full driving
automation.
Question 11. In the design of a pilot
program, what role should be played
by—
a. The 12 safety elements listed in A
Vision for Safety?
b. The elements listed below,
i. Failure risk analysis and reduction
during design process (functional
safety)?
ii. Objective performance criteria,
testable scenarios and test procedures
for evaluating crash avoidance
performance of vehicles with high and
full driving automation?
iii. Third party evaluation?
A. Failure risk reduction?
B. Crash avoidance performance of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation?
iv. Occupant/non-occupant protection
from injury in the event of a crash
(crashworthiness)?
v. Assuring safety of software
updates?
vi. Consumer education?
vii. Post deployment Agency
monitoring?
viii. Post-deployment ADS updating,
maintenance and recalibration?
c. Are there any other elements that
should be considered?
Question 12. Are there any additional
critical areas to consider in the design
of a safe pilot program for the testing
and deployment of vehicles with high
and full driving automation?
6. Issues Relating To Establishing a Pilot
Program
In addition to the general issues
identified above, NHTSA requests
comment on the following questions
related to the development of the
potential pilot program.
i. Applications for Participation and
Potential Terms of Participation
Question 13. Which of the following
matters should NHTSA consider
requiring parties that wish to participate
in the pilot program to address in their
applications?
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a. ‘‘Safety case’’ for vehicles to be
used in the pilot program (e.g., system
safety analysis (including functional
safety analysis), demonstration of safety
capability based on objective
performance criteria, testable scenarios
and test procedures, adherence to
NHTSA’s existing voluntary guidance,
including the submission of a voluntary
safety self-assessment, and third party
review of those materials).
i. What methodology should the
Agency use in assessing whether an
exempted ADS vehicle would offer a
level of safety equivalent to that of a
nonexempted vehicle? For example,
what methodology should the Agency
use in assessing whether an ADS
vehicle steers and brakes at least as
effectively, appropriately and timely as
an average human driver?
b. Description of research goals,
methods, objectives, and expected
results.
c. Test design (e.g., route complexity,
weather and related road surface
conditions, illumination and
institutional review board assessment).
d. Considerations for other road users
(e.g., impacts on vulnerable road users
and proximity of such persons to the
vehicle).
e. Reporting of data, e.g., reporting of
crashes/incidents to NHTSA within 24
hours of their occurrence.
f. Recognition that participation does
not negate the Agency’s investigative or
enforcement authority, e.g.,
independent of any exemptions that the
Agency might issue to program
participants and independent of any
terms that the Agency might establish
on those exemptions, the Agency could
conduct defect investigations and order
recalls of any defective vehicles
involved in the pilot program. Further,
the Agency could investigate the causes
of crashes of vehicles involved in the
program.
g. Adherence to recognized practices
for standardizing the gathering and
reporting of certain types of data in
order to make possible the combining of
data from different sources and the
making of statistically stronger findings.
h. For which types of data would
standardization be necessary in order to
make such findings and why?
i. To what extent would
standardization be necessary for those
types?
j. Occupant/non-occupant protection
from injury in the event of a crash
(crashworthiness).
k. Assuring safety of software updates.
l. Consumer education.
m. Post-deployment monitoring.
n. Post-deployment maintenance and
calibration considerations.
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Question 14. What types of terms and
conditions should NHTSA consider
attaching to exemptions to enhance
public safety and facilitate the Agency’s
monitoring and learning from the testing
and deployment, while preserving the
freedom to innovate, including terms
and conditions for each of the subjects
listed in question 13? What other
subjects should be considered, and
why?
ii. Potential Categories of Data To Be
Provided by Program Participants
Question 15. What value would there
be in NHTSA’s obtaining one or more of
the following potential categories of
data from the participants in the pilot
program? Are there other categories of
data that should be considered? How
should these categories of data be
defined?
a. Statistics on use (e.g., for each
functional class of roads, the number of
miles, speed, hours of operation,
climate/weather and related road
surface conditions).
b. Statistics and other information on
outcome (e.g., type, number and cause
of crashes or near misses, injuries,
fatalities, disengagements, and
transitions to fallback mechanisms, if
appropriate).
c. Vehicle/scene/injury/roadway/
traffic data and description for each
crash or near miss (e.g., system status,
pre-crash information, injury outcomes).
d. Sensor data from each crash or near
miss (e.g., raw sensor data, perception
system output, and control action).
e. Mobility performance impacts of
vehicles with high and full driving
automation, including string stability of
multiple consecutive ADS vehicles and
the effects of ADS on vehicle spacing,
which could ultimately impact flow
safety, and public acceptance.
f. Difficult scenarios (e.g., scenarios in
which the system gave control back to
an operator or transitioned to its safe
state by, for example, disabling itself to
a slow speed or stopped position).
g. Software updates (e.g., reasons for
updates, extent to which updates are
made to each vehicle for which the
updates are intended, effects of
updates).
h. Metrics that the manufacturer is
tracking to identify and respond to
progress (e.g., miles without a crash and
software updates that increase the
operating domain).
i. Information related to community,
driver and pedestrian awareness,
behavior, concerns and acceptance
related to vehicles with high and full
driving automation operation. For
example, if vehicles with high and full
driving automation operated only in
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limited defined geographic areas, might
that affect the routing choices of
vehicles without high and full driving
automation? For another example, if
vehicles with high and full driving
automation are programmed to cede
right of way to avoid collision with
other vehicles and with pedestrians and
cyclists, might some drivers of vehicles
without such automation, pedestrians
and cyclists take advantage of this fact
and force vehicles with high and full
driving automation to yield to them?
j. Metrics or information concerning
the durability of the ADS equipment
and calibration, and need for
maintenance of the ADS.
k. Data from ‘‘control groups’’ that
could serve as a useful baseline against
which to compare the outcomes of the
vehicle participating in the pilot
program.
l. If there are other categories of data
that should be considered, please
identify them and the purposes for
which they would be useful to the
Agency in carrying out its
responsibilities under the Act.
m. Given estimates that vehicles with
high and full driving automation would
generate terabytes of data per vehicle
per day, how should the need for data
be appropriately balanced with the
burden on manufacturers of providing it
and the ability of the Agency to absorb
and use it effectively?
n. How would submission of a safety
assurance letter help to promote public
safety and build public confidence and
acceptance?
o. For all of the above categories of
information, how should the Agency
handle any concerns about confidential
business information and privacy?
B. Use of Exemptions To Provide
Regulatory Relief for Pilot Program
Participants
As discussed above, NHTSA has
several means to provide regulatory
relief for vehicles with high and full
driving automation whose innovative
designs make compliance with existing
regulations impracticable or impossible.
In this document, the Agency has
outlined and requested comment on a
potential pilot program for these
vehicles, to encourage and facilitate the
necessary research and data to ensure
their safe deployment and allow
NHTSA to determine how to
appropriately evaluate and regulate
these vehicles.
As part of this pilot program, NHTSA
is considering what effect participation
in the pilot program could have on the
exemption process and vice versa.
Question 16. How should the Agency
analyze safety in deciding whether to
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grant such exemptions under each of the
separate bases for exemptions in section
30113? Can the exemption process be
used to facilitate safe and effective ADS
development in an appropriate manner?
Question 17. Could a single pilot
program make use of multiple statutory
sources of exemptions or would
different pilot programs be needed, one
program for each source of exemption?
Question 18. To what extent would
NHTSA need to implement the program
via new regulation or changes to
existing regulation? Conversely, could
NHTSA implement the program through
a non-regulatory process? Would the
answer to that question change based
upon which statutory exemption
provision the agency based the program
on?
1. Exemptions From Prohibitions
Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30113
Section 30112, except as otherwise
provided, e.g., under sections 30113 and
30114, prohibits any person from
manufacturing for sale, selling, offering
for sale, introducing or delivering for
introduction in interstate commerce, or
importing into the United States, any
motor vehicle or motor vehicle
equipment manufactured on or after the
date an applicable FMVSS takes effect
unless the vehicle or equipment
complies with the standard and is
covered by a certification issued under
section 30115 of the Act.24 Under
section 30113, upon application by a
vehicle manufacturer, NHTSA may
exempt, on a temporary basis, motor
vehicles from a FMVSS, on terms the
Agency considers appropriate, if it finds
that—
(a) an exemption is consistent with
the public interest and this chapter or
chapter 325 of this title (as applicable);
and either
(b)
(i) compliance with the standard
would cause substantial economic
hardship to a manufacturer that has
tried to comply with the standard in
good faith;
(ii) the exemption would make easier
the development or field evaluation of
a new motor vehicle safety feature
providing a safety level at least equal to
the safety level of the standard;
(iii) the exemption would make the
development or field evaluation of a
low-emission motor vehicle easier and
would not unreasonably lower the
safety level of that vehicle; or
(iv) compliance with the standard
would prevent the manufacturer from
selling a motor vehicle with an overall
24 49
U.S.C. 30112(a)(1).
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safety level at least equal to the overall
safety level of nonexempt vehicles.25
A manufacturer is eligible for an
economic hardship exemption only if
the manufacturer’s total motor vehicle
production in the most recent year of
production is not more than 10,000. An
economic hardship exemption can be
granted for not more than 3 years,
although it can be renewed. Any
manufacturer, regardless of its total
production, is eligible for an exemption
on the other three bases listed in the
paragraph immediately above, but only
if the exemption is for not more than
2,500 vehicles to be sold in the United
States in any 12-month period.
Exemptions on these three bases may be
granted for not more than 2 years and
can be renewed.
Over the years, NHTSA has granted
numerous exemptions under the
‘‘substantial economic hardship’’
criteria, but relatively few under the
other three bases. This proportion may
change in the future. The use of the
other three bases for granting petitions
for the exemption of vehicles with high
and full driving automation may
become increasingly important prior to
the development of ADS-specific
standards.
Since the Act does not contain any
prohibitions regarding the use of a
motor vehicle, whether compliant or
noncompliant, once a manufacturer
receives an exemption from the
prohibitions of section 30112(a)(1), the
use of those vehicles is controlled only
to the extent that NHTSA sets terms on
the exemption. Its authority to set terms
is broad. Since the terms would be the
primary means of ensuring the safe
operation of those vehicles, the Agency
would consider carefully what types of
terms to establish. The manufacturer
would need to agree to abide by the
terms set for that exemption in order to
begin and continue producing vehicles
pursuant to that exemption. Thus, if
NHTSA were to establish the
collaborative pilot research program for
such vehicles discussed in this
document, it could establish, for
example, reporting terms to ensure a
continuing flow of information to the
Agency during and after the period of
exemption to meet the Agency’s, as well
as the manufacturer’s, research needs.
Since only a very small portion of the
total mileage that the exempted vehicles
could be expected to travel during their
useful life would have been driven by
the end of the exemption period, it
might be desirable for the data to be
reported over a longer period of time to
enable the Agency to make sufficiently
25 49
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50881
reliable judgements. Such judgments
might include a retrospective review of
the judgments that the Agency made, at
the time of granting the petition, about
the anticipated safety effects of the
exemption. Regardless of the period
specified for reporting, NHTSA could
also establish terms to specify what the
consequences would be if the flow of
information were to cease or become
inadequate during or after the
exemption period. NHTSA’s regulations
in 49 CFR part 555 provide that the
Agency can revoke an exemption if a
manufacturer fails to satisfy the terms of
the exemption.
Question 19. How could the
exemption process in section 30113 be
used to facilitate a pilot program? For
vehicles with high and full driving
automation that lack means of manual
control, how should NHTSA consider
their participation, including their
continued participation, in the pilot
program in determining whether a
vehicle would meet the statutory criteria
for an exemption under section 30113?
More specifically:
a. Would participation assist a
manufacturer in showing that an
exemption from a FMVSS would
facilitate the development or field
evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety
feature providing a safety level at least
equal to the safety level of the FMVSS,
as required to obtain an exemption
under section 30113(b)(ii)? If so, please
explain how.
b. Would participation assist a
manufacturer in showing that
compliance with the FMVSS would
prevent the manufacturer from selling a
motor vehicle with an overall safety
level at least equal to the overall safety
level of nonexempt vehicles, as required
to obtain an exemption under section
30113(b)(iv)? If so, please explain how.
c. The Agency requests comment on
what role a pilot program could play in
determining when to grant an
exemption from the ‘‘make inoperative’’
prohibition under section 30122 for
certain ‘‘dual mode’’ vehicles. Relatedly,
what tools does NHTSA have to
incentivize vehicles with high and full
driving automation that have means of
manual control and thus do not need an
exemption to participate in the pilot
program?
2. Exemptions From Prohibitions
Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30114
Next, under section 30114, the
‘‘Secretary of Transportation may
exempt a motor vehicle or item of motor
vehicle equipment from section
30112(a) of this title, on terms the
Secretary decides are necessary, for
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research, investigations,
demonstrations, training, competitive
racing events, show, or display.’’ 26
NHTSA has historically focused these
types of exemptions on the
noncompliant vehicles made outside the
U.S. However, NHTSA is examining
whether the language of section 30114
gives NHTSA the discretion to create a
level playing field by expanding the
coverage of exemption under that
section to any vehicle, regardless of
whether it is domestic or foreign, that
meets the criteria of that section,
particularly vehicles with high and full
driving automation that do not meet
existing standards and whose
manufacturers are or seek to become
engaged in research and demonstrations
involving those vehicles. If so, NHTSA
would be able to establish the terms
with which a participant would need to
comply in order to receive and continue
to enjoy the benefits of an exemption.
Such terms could include a wide variety
of matters, including participation in a
pilot program.
Question 20. What role could
exemptions under section 30114 play in
the pilot program? Could participation
in the pilot program assist a
manufacturer in qualifying for an
exemption under section 30114? Could
participation be considered part of the
terms the Secretary determines are
necessary to be granted an exemption
under section 30114 for vehicles that are
engaged in ‘‘research, investigations,
demonstrations, training, competitive
racing events, show, or display’’?
3. Exemption From Rendering
Inoperative Prohibition
Finally, NHTSA has related
exemption authority with regard to the
‘‘make inoperative’’ provision in its
statute. Manufacturers, distributors,
dealers, and motor vehicle repair
businesses are prohibited from
knowingly making inoperative any part
of a device or element of design
installed on or in a motor vehicle or
motor vehicle equipment in compliance
with an applicable FMVSS unless they
reasonably believe the vehicle or
equipment will not be used (except for
testing or a similar purpose during
maintenance or repair) when the device
or element is inoperative.27
However, NHTSA may prescribe
regulations to exempt a person or a class
of persons from this prohibition if the
Agency decides the exemption is
consistent with motor vehicle safety and
the purposes of the Act. For example,
pursuant to that authority, NHTSA has
26 49
27 49
U.S.C. 30114.
U.S.C. 30122(b).
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exempted from the ‘‘make inoperative’’
prohibition,28 as a class, all motor
vehicle repair businesses that modify a
motor vehicle to enable a person with a
disability to operate, or ride as a
passenger in, the motor vehicle to the
extent that those modifications affect
the motor vehicle’s compliance with the
FMVSS or portions thereof specified in
paragraph (c) of 49 CFR part 595. Such
an exemption may be warranted for
certain ‘‘dual-mode’’ vehicles, i.e., those
that may be operated with or without a
human driver and are designed to have
mandated and/or regulated components,
such as brake pedals, retract under
specified conditions. Comments are
invited on this issue.
Question 21. What role could a pilot
program play in determining when to
grant an exemption from the ‘‘make
inoperative’’ prohibition under section
30122 for certain ‘‘dual mode’’ vehicles?
Relatedly, what tools does NHTSA have
to incentivize vehicles with high and
full driving automation that have means
of manual control and thus do not need
an exemption to participate in the pilot
program?
4. Other Potential Obstacles
The Agency also wishes to better
understand any other potential obstacles
either to the development of the pilot
program or vehicles with high and full
driving automation more generally.
Question 22. If there are any obstacles
other than the FMVSS to the testing and
development of vehicles with high and
full driving automation, please explain
what those are and what could be done
to relieve or lessen their burdens. To the
extent any tension exists between a
Federal pilot program and State or local
law, how can NHTSA better partner
with State and local authorities to
advance our common interests in the
safe and effective testing and
deployment of ADS technology?
IV. Confidentiality of Information
Provided by Program Participants
NHTSA recognizes that companies
may be reluctant to share certain data or
information with the Agency in
connection with an exception, an
exemption, or a pilot program because
the data or information is proprietary.
The Agency notes that 49 CFR part 512
sets forth the procedures and standards
by which it will consider claims that
information submitted to the Agency is
entitled to confidential treatment under
5 U.S.C. 552(b), most often because the
information constitutes confidential
business information as described in 5
U.S.C. 552(b)(4). Part 512 also addresses
28 49
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the treatment of information determined
to be entitled to confidential treatment.
Commercial or financial information is
considered confidential if it is
voluntarily submitted to the Agency and
is the type of information that is
customarily not released to the general
public. The Agency is seeking
information from interested parties on
how it might further protect non-public
information that the Agency might need
in connection with an exemption or
pilot program.
V. Next Steps
The Agency wishes to re-emphasize
that it has not made any decisions
whether to establish a pilot program or
how to structure such a program. After
analyzing the public comments on this
ANPRM and other available
information, NHTSA will further assess
the prospects for implementing a viable
and effective program and identify the
best approach to structuring one. Once
it has done so, it will issue a notice,
either an NPRM, if regulatory changes
are determined to be necessary or a
request for comment, if no regulatory
changes are required, describing that
approach and any promising alternative
approaches and again seek public
comment. After considering that second
round of comments, the Agency will
make a final decision about such a
program in a final rule, if needed, or
through another notice.
VI. Regulatory Notices
This action has been determined to be
significant under Executive Order
12866, as amended by Executive Order
13563, and the Department of
Transportation’s Regulatory Policies and
Procedures. It has been reviewed by the
Office of Management and Budget under
that Order. Executive Orders 12866
(Regulatory Planning and Review) and
13563 (Improving Regulation and
Regulatory Review) require agencies to
regulate in the ‘‘most cost-effective
manner,’’ to make a ‘‘reasoned
determination that the benefits of the
intended regulation justify its costs,’’
and to develop regulations that ‘‘impose
the least burden on society.’’
Additionally, Executive Orders 12866
and 13563 require agencies to provide a
meaningful opportunity for public
participation. Accordingly, we have
asked commenters to answer a variety of
questions to elicit practical information
about alternative approaches and
relevant technical data. These
comments will help the Department
evaluate whether a proposed
rulemaking is needed and appropriate.
This action is not subject to the
requirements of E.O. 13771 (82 FR 9339,
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advance notice of proposed rulemaking.
VII. Public Comment
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How do I prepare and submit
comments?
Your comments must be written and
in English. To ensure that your
comments are filed in the correct
docket, please include the docket
number of this document in your
comments.
Your comments must not be more
than 15 pages long (49 CFR 553.21).
NHTSA established this limit to
encourage you to write your primary
arguments in a concise fashion so that
the Agency and the public can more
readily identify the more significant
aspects of your comments. However,
you may provide additional supporting
arguments and relevant data by
attaching necessary additional
documents to your comments. There is
no limit on the number or length of the
attachments.
Please submit one copy (two copies if
submitting by mail or hand delivery) of
your comments, including the
attachments, to the docket following the
instructions given above under
ADDRESSES. Please note, if you are
submitting comments electronically as a
PDF (Adobe) file, we ask that the
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documents submitted be scanned using
an Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
process, thus allowing NHTSA to search
and copy certain portions of your
submissions.
How do I submit confidential business
information?
If you wish to submit any information
under a claim of confidentiality, you
must submit three copies of your
complete submission, including the
information you claim to be confidential
business information, to the Office of
the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the
address given above under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
In addition, you may submit a copy
(two copies if submitting by mail or
hand delivery) from which you have
deleted the claimed confidential
business information, to the docket by
one of the methods given above under
ADDRESSES. When you send a comment
containing information claimed to be
confidential business information, you
should include a cover letter setting
forth the information specified in
NHTSA’s confidential business
information regulation (49 CFR part
512).
Will NHTSA consider late comments?
NHTSA will consider all comments
received before the close of business on
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50883
the comment closing date indicated
above under DATES. To the extent
possible, NHTSA will also consider
comments received after that date.
How can I read the comments submitted
by other people?
You may read the comments received
at the address given above under
Comments. The hours of the docket are
indicated above in the same location.
You may also read the comments on the
internet, identified by the docket
number at the heading of this document,
at https://www.regulations.gov.
Please note that, even after the
comment closing date, NHTSA will
continue to file relevant information in
the docket as it becomes available.
Further, some people may submit late
comments. Accordingly, NHTSA
recommends that you periodically
check the docket for new material.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30101 et seq., 49
U.S.C. 30182.
Issued in Washington, DC, on October 3,
2018, under authority delegated in 49 CFR
part 1.95.
Heidi Renate King,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018–21919 Filed 10–9–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–59–P
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 196 (Wednesday, October 10, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 50872-50883]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21919]
=======================================================================
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Parts 555, 571 and 591
[Docket No. NHTSA-2018-0092]
RIN 2127-AL99
Pilot Program for Collaborative Research on Motor Vehicles With
High or Full Driving Automation
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NHTSA is seeking public comment on matters related to the
near-term and long-term challenges of
[[Page 50873]]
Automated Driving Systems (ADS) testing, development and eventual
deployment. ADS testing and development are already underway in several
areas of the United States. As technology evolves and in anticipation
of requests to test and further develop high and full ADS, including
those in vehicles without traditional controls necessary for a human
driver, NHTSA is issuing this ANPRM to obtain public comments on the
factors and structure that are appropriate for the Agency to consider
in designing a national pilot program that will enable it to
facilitate, monitor and learn from the testing and development of the
emerging advanced vehicle safety technologies and to assure the safety
of those activities.
The Agency seeks these comments from interested stakeholders,
including State and local authorities, companies, researchers, safety
advocates and other experts interested in, engaged in or planning to
become engaged in the design, development, testing, and deployment of
motor vehicles with high and full driving automation. The Agency also
seeks comments from road users, including vehicle drivers and
passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.
More specifically, NHTSA requests comments on the following topics
related to ADS safety research. First, NHTSA seeks comments on
potential factors that should be considered in designing a pilot
program for the safe on-road testing and deployment of vehicles with
high and full driving automation and associated equipment. Second, the
Agency seeks comments on the use of existing statutory provisions and
regulations to allow for the implementation of such a pilot program.
Third, the Agency seeks comment on any additional elements of
regulatory relief (e.g., exceptions, exemptions, or other potential
measures) that might be needed to facilitate the efforts to participate
in the pilot program and conduct on-road research and testing involving
these vehicles, especially those that lack controls for human drivers
and thus may not comply with all existing safety standards. Fourth,
with respect to the granting of exemptions to enable companies to
participate in such a program, the Agency seeks comments on the nature
of the safety and any other analyses that it should perform in
assessing the merits of individual exemption petitions and on the types
of terms and conditions it should consider attaching to exemptions to
protect public safety and facilitate the Agency's monitoring and
learning from the testing and deployment, while preserving the freedom
to innovate.
By developing a robust record of the answers to these important
questions, NHTSA expects to learn more about the progress of ADS and
the ways in which the Agency can facilitate safe and efficient ADS
testing and deployment for the benefit of individual consumers and the
traveling public as a whole.
DATES: Comments on this document are due no later than November 26,
2018.
ADDRESSES: Comments must be identified by Docket Number NHTSA-2018-0092
and may be submitted using any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington,
DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building, Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m. E.T., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Regardless of how you submit your comments, you must include the
docket number identified in the heading of this document. Note that all
comments received, including any personal information provided, will be
posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov. Please see the
``Privacy Act'' heading below.
You may call the Docket Management Facility at 202-366-9826.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov or the street
address listed above. We will continue to file relevant information in
the Docket as it becomes available.
Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits
comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT
posts these comments, without edit, to www.regulations.gov, as
described in the system of records notice, DOT/ALL-14 FDMS, accessible
through www.dot.gov/privacy. In order to facilitate comment tracking
and response, we encourage commenters to provide their name, or the
name of their organization; however, submission of names is completely
optional. Whether or not commenters identify themselves, all timely
comments will be fully considered. If you wish to provide comments
containing proprietary or confidential information, please contact the
agency for alternate submission instructions.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For research and pilot program issues: Dee Williams, Office of
Vehicle Safety Research, (202) 366-8537, [email protected], National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
For legal issues: Stephen Wood, Assistant Chief Counsel, Vehicle
Rulemaking and Harmonization, Office of Chief Counsel, 202-366-2992,
email [email protected], National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Background and Overview
II. NHTSA's Safety Mission, Authority and Programmatic Needs With
Respect to ADS
A. NHTSA Has Authority Over All Aspects of ADS
B. NHTSA's Flexibility To Develop and Implement Non-Traditional
Standards for ADS
C. Research Is Needed To Generate Data on ADS
D. Regulatory Relief May Be Needed To Facilitate Research
Involving Vehicles With High and Full Driving Automation
E. A Pilot Program Could Provide Relief and Promote Research on
Ads
III. Pilot Program for the Safe Testing and Deploying of Vehicles
With High and Full Driving Automation
A. Considerations in Designing a Pilot Program
1. Vehicle Design for Safe Operation
2. Vehicle Design for Risk Mitigation
3. Vehicle Design Safety Elements
4. Data and Reporting
5. Additional Considerations in Pilot Program Design
6. Issues Relating To Establishing a Pilot Program
i. Applications for Participation and Potential Terms of
Participation
ii. Potential Categories of Data To Be Provided by Program
Participants
B. Use of Exemptions To Provide Regulatory Relief for Pilot
Program Participants
1. Exemptions From Prohibitions Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30113
2. Exemptions From Prohibitions Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles
Under Section 30114
3. Exemption From Rendering Inoperative Prohibition
4. Other Potential Obstacles
IV. Confidentiality of Information Provided by Program Participants
V. Next Steps
VI. Regulatory Notices
VII. Public Comment
I. Background and Overview
As the Federal agency charged with improving motor vehicle safety
through reducing crashes, and preventing deaths
[[Page 50874]]
and injuries from crashes, NHTSA is encouraged by the new ADS vehicle
technologies being developed and implemented by automobile
manufacturers and other innovators. NHTSA anticipates that automation
can serve a vital safety role on our Nation's roads, particularly since
human error and choice are currently the critical factors behind the
occurrence of a large number of crashes. ADS vehicle technologies
possess the potential to save thousands of lives, as well as reduce
congestion, enhance mobility, and improve productivity.
To aid in determining how best to foster the safe development and
implementation of ADS vehicle technologies on our Nation's roadways,
NHTSA believes it is prudent to facilitate the conducting of research
and gathering of data about these new and developing technologies in
their various iterations and configurations. Thus, NHTSA is seeking
comment on creating a national ADS vehicle pilot program for the
testing of vehicles and associated equipment and to gather data from
such testing, including data generated in real-world scenarios. NHTSA
anticipates that this data will provide information needed to help
realize the promises and meet the challenges of ADS vehicle development
and deployment.
The purpose of this ANPRM is to obtain public views and suggestions
for steps that NHTSA can take to facilitate, monitor and learn from on-
road research through the safe testing and eventual deployment of high
and full automated vehicles, i.e., Level 4 and 5 \1\ ADS vehicles,
primarily through a pilot program.
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\1\ See table below for explanations of these terms.
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To explain these levels of automation and put them in context with
the other levels defined by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers)
International in Table 1 of SAE J3016,\2\ the Agency provides the
following simplified description of the full array of levels:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ SAE J3016_201806 Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related
to Driving Automation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does the vehicle do, what does
Level of automation the human driver/occupant do, and
when and where do they do it?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 0........................... No Automation of driving task: While
the vehicle may provide warnings
(e.g., forward collision warning
and blind-spot warning), the human
driver must in all conditions and
at all times perform all aspects of
the driving task like monitoring
the driving environment, steering,
braking and accelerating.
Level 1........................... Driver Assistance: The vehicle may
have some features that can
automatically assist the human
driver with either steering (e.g.,
lane keeping assist) or braking/
accelerating (e.g., adaptive cruise
control), but not with both
simultaneously. The human driver
performs all other aspects of the
driving task like monitoring the
driving environment, steering,
braking and accelerating.
Level 2........................... Partial Driving Automation: The
vehicle has combined automated
functions, like speed control and
steering simultaneously, but the
driver must remain engaged with the
driving task by controlling the
other elements of driving,
monitoring the driving environment
at all times, and being ready to
take over immediately if conditions
exceed the capabilities of the
vehicle's automated functions.
Level 3........................... Conditional Driving Automation: The
vehicle can perform most aspects of
the driving task, including
monitoring the driving environment
and making decisions, under some
conditions (e.g., speeds under a
set threshold). The presence of a
human driver is still a necessity,
but is not required to monitor the
driving environment when the ADS is
engaged and operating in those
conditions. The driver must always
be ready to intervene and take
control of the vehicle when the ADS
gives the driver notice to do so or
the vehicle experiences a driving-
task-related failure.
Level 4........................... High Driving Automation: The vehicle
can perform most aspects of the
driving task under certain
conditions without the involvement
of or oversight by a human driver.
Outside of those conditions, the
vehicle will enter a safe fallback
mode if a human occupant does not
resume control. The vehicle may or
may not be designed to allow a
human occupant to assume control.
Level 5........................... Full Driving Automation: The vehicle
can perform all aspects of the
driving task at all times and under
all conditions. While the human
occupants need to set the trip
destination and start the ADS, they
need never be involved in any
aspects of the driving task. The
vehicle may or may not be designed
to allow a human occupant to assume
control.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This ANPRM is the latest effort by DOT and NHTSA to address issues
relating to the testing and deployment of vehicles with high and full
driving automation. Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety
(``A Vision for Safety''), issued by DOT in September 2017, included
guidance to manufacturers and other entities seeking to document for
themselves how they are addressing safety. It further outlined a
summary document that they could use to disclose their voluntary safety
self-assessments to the public in order to describe to the public, to
stakeholders, and to Federal, State and local governments the
manufacturers' approach to assuring safe testing and development.
In a separate notice published in January 2018,\3\ the Agency took
the next step by publishing a request for public comments to identify
any regulatory barriers in the existing Federal motor vehicle safety
standards (FMVSS) to the testing, compliance certification and
compliance verification of automated motor vehicles. In that notice,
NHTSA focused primarily, but not exclusively, on vehicles with certain
unconventional interior designs, such as those that lack controls for a
human driver; e.g., steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator pedal.
The absence of manual driving controls, and thus of a human driver,
poses potential barriers to testing, compliance certification and
compliance verification. Further, the compliance test procedures of
some FMVSS depend on the presence of such things as a human test driver
who can follow test instructions or a steering wheel that can be used
by an automated steering mechanism. In addressing all of these issues,
the Agency's focus will be on ensuring the maintenance of currently
required levels of safety performance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ 83 FR 2607, January 18, 2018.
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This ANPRM focuses on the related question of how the Agency can
best encourage and facilitate the necessary research to allow for the
development and establishment, as needed, of standards for ADS
vehicles, including vehicles that have unconventional designs, can
operate in ``dual modes'' (one of which may involve unconventional
designs), and can comply with the existing FMVSS.
[[Page 50875]]
NHTSA believes that in order to anticipate, identify and address
potential safety concerns and realize the full promise of ADS, it is
vital that the developers of vehicles with high and full driving
automation have broad opportunities to gain practical, real world
experience, in locations of their choosing, with different approaches
to, and combinations of, hardware and software in order to learn which
approaches and combinations offer the greatest levels of safety and
reliability. Simulated testing, or testing in laboratory or other
controlled settings is very beneficial, but NHTSA also recognizes the
importance of preparing for a world in which ADS vehicles operate on a
broad scale on our Nation's roads under a vast array of complex and
changing road, traffic and weather conditions. ADS must be able to
operate in and adapt to such conditions, just as human drivers must
when driving their vehicles today. On-the-road testing and evaluation
of ADS vehicles will be critical to the successful development and
integration of these vehicles into the roads and highways throughout
the country.
Based on the foregoing, NHTSA is considering the establishment of a
national pilot research program. The Agency emphasizes that it has not
made any decisions whether to establish a pilot program or how to
structure one. For this reason, it cannot currently estimate the
timing, cost or duration of a pilot program. After analyzing the public
comments on this ANPRM and other available information, NHTSA will
further assess the prospects for implementing a viable and effective
program and identify the best approach to structuring one.
I. NHTSA's Safety Mission, Authority, and Programmatic Needs With
Respect to ADS
NHTSA, an operating administration within DOT, was established, as
a successor to the National Highway Safety Bureau, by the Highway
Safety Act of 1970 to carry out safety programs under the National
Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (``the Act'') and the
Highway Safety Act of 1966. The Act directs the Department of
Transportation ``(1) to prescribe motor vehicle safety standards for
motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment in interstate commerce; and
(2) to carry out needed safety research and development.'' \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ 49 U.S.C. 30101.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Its vehicle safety mission is to save lives and prevent injuries
due to road traffic crashes through a variety of means. More
specifically, the Agency carries out its vehicle safety mission by:
Collecting real world data on the safety of motor vehicles
and items of motor vehicle equipment;
Conducting safety research;
Setting FMVSS for new motor vehicles and motor vehicle
equipment (to which manufacturers must certify compliance before sale
or introduction into interstate commerce).
Enforcing compliance with the standards;
Investigating and overseeing the recall and remedy of
noncompliant products and products containing safety-related defects;
Communicating with and educating the public about motor
vehicle safety issues through comparative performance ratings and other
means; and
Issuing guidance for vehicle and equipment manufacturers
to follow on important issues affecting safety.
In addition, NHTSA works with State highway safety agencies and
other partners under the Highway Safety Act to encourage the safe
behavior of drivers, occupants, cyclists, and pedestrians across the
country.
A. NHTSA Has Authority Over All Aspects of ADS Design
NHTSA's authority over ADS is broad and clear. The Act obligates
NHTSA to regulate the safety of motor vehicles and motor vehicle
equipment.\5\ ``Motor vehicle equipment'' is defined broadly enough to
include both tangible components, e.g., hardware, and intangible
components, e.g., software, of modern electronic motor vehicle
systems.\6\ Both types of components, working in combination, are
indispensable to the functioning of modern vehicle electronic systems
and critical to the future safety of the motor vehicle occupants,
cyclists and pedestrians.\7\ Indeed, without their software components,
these electronic systems would not be systems; instead, they would be
nonfunctional assemblages of hardware components. Hardware and software
components are also at the heart of each building block technology for
vehicle automation and are indispensable to the combining of the
technologies in ADS vehicles.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ 49 U.S.C. 30111(a).
\6\ 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(6) and (7).
\7\ Transportation Research Board Special Report 308, The Safety
Promise and Challenge of Automotive Electronics: Insights from
Unintended Acceleration, 2012. The Board is part of the National
Research Council which is, in turn, part of the National Academies.
This report describes the challenges presented by electronic systems
and what the report terms their ``hardware components'' and
``software components.'' (P. 87). It is available on a number of
online sites, including https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr308.pdf and https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13342/trb-special-report-308-the-safety-challenge-and-promise-of-automotive-electronics and
https://www.omg.org/hot-topics/documents/Safety-Promise-and-Challenge-of-Automotive-Electronics-TRB-2012.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As technology has evolved, NHTSA has responded to Congressional
mandates to use its authority to specify how and when the hardware
components of electronic systems such as air bags, anti-lock braking
systems and electronic stability control systems must activate and
perform. This approach gives manufacturers freedom to develop the
software components needed to control the performance of each system's
hardware components. NHTSA has also repeatedly exercised its authority
under the Act when the software and/or hardware components of
computerized electronics have been the subject of safety defect recall
and remedy campaigns. Software updates have been the remedy for
software found to contain a safety defect.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ To find vehicle safety recalls involving software, search
for ``software'' in the monthly NHTSA recalls reports on the
following web page, Monthly Reports: Recalls and Investigations,
available at https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/monthlyreports.cfm. See also May 2016 report by J.D. Power that it
had conducted an analysis of recalls under the Act showing that
``(t)o date, 189 separate software recalls have been issued in the
past 5 years, affecting more than 13 million vehicles. According to
manufacturer analyses, 141 presented a risk of crashing; 44 could
have resulted in injury.'' The results of this analysis may be found
at https://www.jdpower.com/cars/articles/safety-and-mpg/record-numbers-software-complaints-and-recalls-threaten-trust.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NHTSA is also authorized to regulate certain other software,
specifically, software that has functionality similar to that of the
software in either a vehicle manufacturer's key fob/smart key or even
some of the systems integrated into some current vehicles.\9\ Some of
this software, e.g., that for remotely starting a vehicle's engine,
affects motor vehicle systems only when the vehicles are parked, i.e.,
in circumstances called ``nonoperational'' safety. Other software,
e.g., forward crash warning and remote automated parking systems,
affects motor vehicles when they are moving, i.e., ``operational''
safety. The Act's definition of ``motor vehicle safety'' encompasses
both aspects of safety.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(8).
\10\ 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(9).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. NHTSA's Flexibility To Develop and Implement Non-Traditional
Standards for ADS
NHTSA's primary exercise of its regulatory authority involves the
development and establishment of the FMVSS.\11\ Under the Act, NHTSA's
[[Page 50876]]
FMVSS must meet a variety of requirements.\12\ They must be
performance-oriented. They must be practicable, both technologically
and economically. They must be objective, meaning that they must be
capable of producing identical results when tests are conducted in
identical conditions and compliance must be based on scientific
measurements, not subjective opinion. Finally, they must meet the need
for safety.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ It is important to note that, even in the absence of
standards, ADS-equipped vehicles must still be free from
unreasonable risks to safety; if such risks do exist, the vehicle,
component, or accessory would be subject to NHTSA's defect
authority. See NHTSA Enforcement Guidance Bulletin 2016-02: Safety-
Related Defects and Automated Safety Technologies, 81 FR 65705,
September 23, 2016.
\12\ 49 U.S.C. 30102(a)(10), 30111(a).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The FMVSS can address all aspects and phases of ensuring that new
motor vehicles are designed and perform safely. NHTSA can establish
crash avoidance standards to reduce the chance that a vehicle will
become involved in a crash or cause another vehicle to become involved
in crash or reduce the severity of crashes that cannot be avoided.
Likewise, NHTSA can issue crashworthiness standards requiring that a
vehicle be designed so that its occupants are less likely to be
seriously injured in a crash and so that it is less likely to cause
injury to the occupants of other vehicles or other roadway users such
as pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, NHTSA can issue standards for
post-crash safety, such as minimizing the risk of electrical fires.
NHTSA believes that the FMVSS structure has the necessary
flexibility to regulate the design and performance of ADS
appropriately. Although the existing FMVSS rely on physical tests and
measurements to evaluate safety performance, there is no requirement in
the Act that they rely exclusively or even at all on such tests and
measurements so long as they are objective and meet the other statutory
requirements. In the future, other approaches such as simulation and
requirements expressed in terms of mathematical functions might be
considered.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ NHTSA notes that its Corporate Average Fuel Economy
Standards are required to be stated in terms of a mathematical
function. 49 U.S.C. 32902(b)(3)(A).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, because the software environment is likely to evolve
and change at a rapid rate, NHTSA recognizes that it will need a new
approach to the development and drafting of FMVSS, especially any FMVSS
that might be established for ADS. The accelerating pace of
technological change is incompatible with lengthy rulemaking
proceedings that last at least 6-8 years from initiating rulemaking to
conducting research to translating the research results into regulatory
text to conducting and completing a notice and comment rulemaking.
Further, the FMVSS of the future will need to be reconceptualized,
developed and drafted so that they are nimbler, more performance-
oriented and thus more accommodating of anticipated and continued rapid
technological change than has generally been the case for the FMVSS to
date.
Similarly, although existing FMVSS generally address specific
predictable events (e.g., stopping and turning safely on low friction
surfaces, specific types of crashes), it may be desirable, even
necessary, to meet the need for safety, for future FMVSS focused on ADS
technologies to also address the common, yet unpredictable, events that
occur in real-world driving, e.g., the one person among crowds of
people standing on two or more corners of an intersection who suddenly
decides to cross the street, the approaching vehicle that suddenly
turns left, the parked vehicle that suddenly leaves its parking place,
and the vehicle that suddenly emerges from a blind alley or other
obscured location. Test procedures could replicate those events,
including their unpredictability. A degree of unpredictability might be
accomplished by varying the location of standardized surrogate
vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians on a test course and the sequence in
which they are encountered during testing. A sufficient degree of
randomization could help avoid the risks that using a completely
predictable test procedure might create, i.e., that a test vehicle
could be programmed to anticipate the predictable encounters with
surrogate objects and avoid a collision with them by being pre-
programmed to do so, not by relying on its sensors and decision-making
algorithms.
Further, future FMVSS could test the ability of ADS vehicles to
monitor not only simple scenarios involving a single surrogate
pedestrian or vehicle, but also more complex and realistic scenarios
involving multiple surrogate pedestrians and vehicles and their ability
to identify and respond appropriately to all surrogate pedestrians and
vehicles without the ADS vehicles' knowing in advance precisely which
pedestrian or vehicle would move and when into their path.
Finally, future FMVSS could be drafted in more technology-neutral
performance terms than many of the existing technology-specific FMVSS.
This approach may allow for the development and deployment of cutting-
edge technology, as long as FMVSS performance mandates are satisfied.
This approach could allow for testing and deployment of critical safety
equipment without requiring time-consuming regulatory amendments to
respond to changes in technology.
C. Research Is Needed To Generate Data on ADS
In order to establish standards that ensure safety without
jeopardizing innovation, NHTSA must conduct significant research, as
well as leverage research conducted by outside entities, including
industry and universities. When the Act was enacted, Congress
recognized the importance of research, development, testing, and
evaluation, and provided ``broad authority to initiate and conduct''
those activities.\14\ Additionally, Congress recognized that safety
standards ``cannot be set in a vacuum. They must be based on reliable
information and research.'' \15\
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\14\ S. Rep. No. 89-1301, at 9 (June 23, 1966).
\15\ H.R. Rep. No. 89-1776, at 11 (July 28, 1966); see also S.
Rep. No. 89-1301, at 9.
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In the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,\16\
Congress reiterated and strengthened NHTSA's role in conducting
research, particularly in areas of innovative technology, and directed
that ``[t]he Secretary of Transportation shall conduct research,
development, and testing on any area or aspect of motor vehicle safety
necessary to carry out this chapter.'' \17\ In carrying out this
directive, Congress instructed the Secretary to ``[c]onduct motor
vehicle safety research, development, and testing programs and
activities, including activities related to new and emerging
technologies that impact or may impact motor vehicle safety'' and to
``[c]ollect and analyze all types of motor vehicle and highway safety
data'' relating to motor vehicle performance and crashes.\18\ Further,
the Secretary was given broad authority to ``enter into cooperative
agreements, collaborative research, or contracts with Federal agencies,
interstate authorities, State and local governments, other public
entities, private organizations and persons,'' and other appropriate
institutions.\19\
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\16\ Public Law 112-141.
\17\ 49 U.S.C. 30181.
\18\ 49 U.S.C. 30182(a) (emphasis added).
\19\ Id. at Sec. 30182(b)(5).
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To aid in determining how best to foster the safe introduction of
vehicles with high and full driving automation onto our Nation's
roadways, NHTSA seeks to facilitate research and data gathering
involving these new and developing technologies in their various
iterations and configurations. The
[[Page 50877]]
Agency wants the entities involved in this research to gain practical,
real world experience to determine the best approaches to enhancing
safety. This research is expected to generate the data needed to assist
in developing methods of validating the safety performance of vehicles
with high and full driving automation. NHTSA recognizes both the safety
potential of ADS and the need to ensure that all testing and operation
of vehicles with high and full driving automation are conducted in a
manner that ensures the appropriate levels of safety for everyone
involved--and most importantly, all roadway users.
D. Regulatory Relief May Be Needed To Facilitate Research Involving
Vehicles With High and Full Driving Automation
In the separate notice on barriers mentioned above, NHTSA stated
that it believes that vehicles with traditional interior designs, e.g.,
ones including steering wheels and foot pedals, that meet the existing
FMVSS would still comply with the FMVSS even if those vehicles were
designed to be operated as vehicles with high and full driving
automation. However, vehicles with high and full driving automation
that do not have traditional designs might not meet the existing FMVSS
and would, therefore, require an exemption. NHTSA's statutes provide
two separate avenues under sections 30113 and 30114 \20\ for an
exemption of vehicles that do not comply with the standards and another
process designed for vehicles that would initially comply with the
standard, but also may need exemptions if they operate in ``dual
modes,'' one of which could run afoul of NHTSA's ``make inoperative''
prohibition.\21\ Under both types of exemptions, NHTSA may set terms by
which the exempted entity must abide.
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\20\ 49 U.S.C. 30113 and 30114. These two sections, including
relevant statutory text, are discussed below in parts III.B.1 and
III.B.2 of this ANPRM.
\21\ Certain ADS vehicles that do not comply with existing
standards are currently allowed to be introduced into interstate
commerce if they meet the requirements in section 30112(b)(10). The
section excepts motor vehicles from the prohibition in section
30112(a)(1) against introducing a noncompliant motor vehicle into
commerce, but, among other constraints, only if the vehicle is
introduced by a manufacturer solely for the purpose of its being
tested and evaluated on public roads, only for vehicle manufacturers
that manufactured and distributed compliant vehicles in the United
States before December 4, 2015, and only if those vehicles are not
sold after the conclusion of testing. Importantly, then, this
exception is limited in both which manufacturers can take advantage
of it and what can be done while using it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this document, NHTSA announces that it is contemplating creating
an ADS vehicle pilot research program for the testing of vehicles and
associated equipment and gathering of data from such testing, including
in real-world scenarios, which the Agency would consider as setting the
terms of the exemptions. NHTSA anticipates that these data will provide
needed information that will better enable the public and private
sectors to realize the promises and overcome the challenges of vehicles
with high and full driving automation.
E. A Pilot Program Can Provide Relief and Promote Research on ADS
To summarize, NHTSA's authority covers all relevant aspects of ADS
design, including vehicles with high and full driving automation.
NHTSA, therefore, has an affirmative duty to establish the measures
necessary to ensure the safe design and operation of these types of
vehicles. However, to do so in a way that actually achieves those
safety goals and does not unnecessarily impede innovation requires
significant research on these cutting-edge issues. Due to the
complexity of real-world driving, this research cannot simply be done
in laboratories or other highly controlled testing environments and,
instead, part of it must be done on public roads with real driving
conditions. To help ensure that this testing is being done safely and
with an eye towards developing the data necessary to support such
future standards as may be needed, NHTSA is considering establishing a
pilot program for vehicles with high and full driving automation for
entities wishing to engage in the testing or, in some cases, deployment
of vehicles with high and full driving automation that would require
some type of an exemption from NHTSA's existing standards. The Agency
believes that such a program could aid developers of vehicles with high
and full driving automation in testing and deploying their vehicles
across the country in a wide variety of scenarios, e.g., different
climates, weather patterns, topographical features, road systems,
population and traffic densities, etc.
III. Pilot Program for the Safe Testing and Deployment of Vehicles With
High and Full Driving Automation
Technological innovations in automotive transportation are diverse
and evolving quickly in the United States and abroad. The potential
safety benefits that could result from deploying vehicles with high and
full driving automation justify a considered approach at the Federal,
State and local levels to the design and implementation of pilot
programs for the safe testing, learning and eventual deploying of these
vehicles, including on public roadways.
Safety is a primary concern and is the primary mission of NHTSA.
The issuance of this ANPRM on pilot program design is intended to
stimulate public discussion of both safety aspects of new technology
testing and development, as well as approaches to learning from pilot
programs for technological improvement and eventual deployment. NHTSA
acknowledges that there are also mobility, efficiency and accessibility
opportunities associated with ADS and that infrastructure could play a
key role in the broader operational availability of these technologies.
Numerous companies, researchers, safety advocates, State and local
governments, and other stakeholders are engaged in, planning to become
engaged in or otherwise interested in the design, development, testing,
and deployment of vehicles with high and full driving automation. NHTSA
recognizes that it is restricted in its ability to apply requirements
to certain manufacturers testing vehicles on public highways if the
manufacturers agree not to offer for sale or sell those vehicles.\22\
Discussion of pilot program design and implementation does not assume
that such regulatory and statutory limits are either appropriate or
necessary, but rather that pilot programs might require NHTSA to
address certain barriers.
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\22\ 49 U.S.C. 30112(b)(10).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further, pilot programs should anticipate the need to coordinate
Federal, State and local governments' responsibilities and efforts and
should recognize other Federal agencies, and State and local
governments are effective sources of information needed for risk
management as ADS technology approaches deployment. State and local
governments have traditionally played important roles in motor vehicle
and road safety, through enforcement, traffic management and planning,
research, and much more. It is critical to NHTSA to partner effectively
with State and local governments to permit them to continue these
important functions while the Agency works collaboratively to
facilitate the safe and efficient deployment of ADS technology.
Finally, at this stage, NHTSA is only considering a pilot program
for light-duty vehicles; to the extent the Agency will consider
establishing future pilot projects for other motor vehicles, such as
truck tractors or buses, it will do so in coordination with the other
relevant operating administrations within the Department.
Questions.
[[Page 50878]]
In furtherance of the goals of this ANPRM, NHTSA requests
interested persons to answer a variety of questions about the structure
of a national pilot program and about the types of regulatory relief
that may be needed to make such a program successful. The views and
information provided in response to those that will aid the Agency in
deciding whether to create a national program and, if so, how to do so.
Guidance on answering questions.
In responding to each question, please provide data, analyses,
research reports or other justification to support your response. In
addition, please respond to the questions and requests in the same
sequence in which they appear below and include the number of each
question and request.
Question 1. What potential factors should be considered in
designing the structure of a pilot program that would enable the Agency
to facilitate, monitor and learn from on-road research through the safe
testing and eventual deployment of vehicles with high and full driving
automation and associated equipment?
Question 2. If NHTSA were to create a pilot program, how long would
there be a need for such a program? What number of vehicles should be
involved? Should NHTSA encourage the conducting of research projects in
multiple locations with different weather conditions, topographical
features, traffic densities, etc.?
Question 3. What specific difficulties should be addressed in
designing a national vehicle pilot program for vehicles with high and
full driving automation either through the exemption request process
relevant for FMVSS or more broadly related to other areas of NHTSA and/
or other authorities.
Question 4. How can existing statutory provisions and regulations
be more effectively used in implementing such a pilot program?
Question 5. Are there any additional elements of regulatory relief
(e.g., exceptions, exemptions, or other potential measures) that might
be needed to facilitate the efforts to participate in the pilot program
and conduct on-road research and testing involving these vehicles,
especially those that lack controls for human drivers and thus may not
comply with all existing FMVSS?
A. Considerations in Designing the Pilot Program
NHTSA believes that a safe and effective pilot program for vehicles
with high and full driving automation would necessarily address each of
the following critical areas: (1) Vehicle design for safe operation;
(2) vehicle design for risk mitigation in the event of an unplanned
event; (3) vehicle design for intended operating conditions; and (4)
data reporting and information sharing to identify and mitigate risks
identified during the pilot program.
1. Vehicle Design for Safe Operation
As described above, NHTSA has long assessed vehicle attributes for
safe operation under reasonably anticipated conditions. Such an
assessment has historically included detailed elements of structural
integrity and design, as well as hardware, software and
telecommunications elements that contribute to either operational or
nonoperational vehicle safety.
NHTSA believes that vehicles with high and full driving automation
participating in pilot programs for testing and evaluation and eventual
deployment should continue to meet most FMVSS for the protection of
vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users.
However, in the case of certain elements, safety might be enhanced
through approaches different than those contained in the current FMVSS,
given that they were developed for vehicles designed only for human
operation.
As noted above, NHTSA has issued a Request for Comment regarding
those provisions in the FMVSS that may pose barriers for the design,
testing and deployment of some safe vehicles with high and full driving
automation.
Question 6. What vehicle design elements might replace existing
required safety equipment and/or otherwise enhance vehicle safety under
reasonably anticipated operating conditions?
2. Vehicle Design for Risk Mitigation
As described in section I (overview) above, the primary difference
between lower level driving automation systems and high and full
driving automation systems is the reliance in the latter systems on the
vehicle to perform all driving functions in at least certain
circumstances. It is anticipated that vehicles with high and full
driving automation will accomplish this through the combination of
highly sophisticated detection systems, systems for digital
interpretation of detected objects, data retention and processing,
communication protocols, and highly sophisticated decision-making
software. Together, this combination of functions is intended to
replace and improve upon the ability of human drivers to detect,
interpret, communicate and react to vehicle operational needs and
conditions.
Some vehicles with high driving automation will require an
additional design consideration to address human-machine interface when
operating outside of their Operational Design Domain.\23\ Specifically,
given the reliance of those vehicles on vehicle, and not human,
systems, the design of those vehicles should account for both the
vehicle and human elements of any transition from one type of driver
(human or vehicle) to another type of driver (vehicle or human).
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\23\ The Operational Design Domain describes the specific
conditions under which a given ADS or feature is intended to
function. More specifically, it defines where (such as what roadway
types and speeds) and when (under what conditions, such as day/
night, weather limits, etc.) an ADS is designed to operate.
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In A Vision for Safety, the Department of Transportation described
a voluntary safety self-disclosure approach recommended to innovators
seeking to test and deploy vehicles with high and full driving
automation on public roadways.
NHTSA's existing authorities under the Act, e.g., provisions
concerning research, standard setting and consumer information, are
adequate for NHTSA to evaluate and recommend protocols to ensure the
safety of vehicle design for risk mitigation. In fact, NHTSA has
already developed and adopted protocols for a wide variety of
technologies for use in either the FMVSS or the New Car Assessment
Program. Examples include anti-lock braking systems, electronic
stability control, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure
warning.
Furthermore, NHTSA's authorities supporting the current FMVSS
program are adequate and appropriate for developing very broadly
drafted safety performance standards that might be necessary for the
eventual safe widespread deployment on public roadways of vehicles with
high and full driving automation. Such performance standards should
allow for unencumbered innovation where such innovation provides
equivalent or improved safety for future transportation designs when
compared to the safety of human drivers. For example, future
performance-based standards might include standards and testing for
safe lane change performance on highways, hazard detection and
avoidance in urban environments, or collision avoidance on rural
highways.
Question 7. What types of performance measures should be considered
to ensure safety while allowing for innovation of emerging
[[Page 50879]]
technology in vehicles with high and full driving automation
participating in a pilot program?
3. Vehicle Design Safety Elements
A Vision for Safety seeks to help designers of ADS to analyze,
identify, and resolve safety considerations prior to deployment by
using their own, industry, and other best practices. It outlines 12
safety elements, which the Agency believes represent the consensus
across the industry, that are generally considered to be the most
salient design aspects to consider and address when developing,
testing, and deploying ADS on public roadways. Within each safety
design element, entities are encouraged to consider and document for
themselves their use of industry standards, best practices, company
policies, or other methods they have employed to provide for increased
system safety in real-world conditions.
For example, vehicles with high and full driving automation are
currently tested and deployed in carefully risk-managed phases to allow
for safe operation during development of increasingly complex systems.
As described in A Vision for Safety, the circumstances in which the
automated operation of a vehicle is enabled are set forth in the
vehicle's Operational Design Domain.
NHTSA believes that any pilot program for the testing of vehicles
with high and full driving automation should include defined
Operational Design Domains as a component of safe automated vehicle
operation. Examples of an Operational Design Domain include, but are
not limited to, geographic, environmental or other conditions in which
the vehicle is designed to operate, detect and respond safely to a
variety of normal and unexpected objects and events, and to fall back
to a minimal risk condition in the event that the ADS fails or that the
ADS encounters conditions outside the Operational Design Domain.
NHTSA has historically regulated the enabling conditions for safety
systems, such as air bags, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability
control, that are designed to intervene when certain conditions, and
only those conditions, exist. NHTSA believes that the critical
relationship between the safety of a vehicle's design and the vehicle's
decision-making system similarly makes it necessary to evaluate the
safety of automated vehicle performance in light of appropriate and
well-defined Operational Design Domains. For example, if a vehicle is
capable of safely operating automatically only at speeds below 30 mph,
NHTSA might consider whether it would be appropriate to require that
the vehicle be designed so that it cannot operate automatically at
speeds of 30 mph or more unless and until it acquires the capability
(e.g., through software updates) of safely operating automatically
above that speed. Similarly, if a vehicle would become incapable of
operating safely if one or more of its sensors became non-functional,
NHTSA might consider whether it would be appropriate to require that
the vehicle be designed so that it cannot operate automatically in
those circumstances.
State and local authorities also have a role to play. Through
establishing and enforcing their rules of the road, these authorities
have traditionally controlled such operational matters as the speed at
which vehicles may be driven and the condition of certain types of
safety equipment such as head and tail lights. In the future, it is
reasonable to expect that these authorities may establish new rules of
the road to address ADS vehicles specifically. While NHTSA might
require the manufacturers of these vehicles to design them so that
their vehicles know the State and locality in which they are operating
and what the rules of the road are for that location and so that they
observe those rules, the States and localities would enforce those
rules if broken.
Question 8. How should the Operational Design Domains of individual
vehicle models be defined and reinforced and how should Federal, State
and local authorities work together to ensure that they are observed?
4. Data and Reporting
The purpose of a pilot program is to allow for safe on-road testing
and on-road learning in order to provide feedback for further safe
development. An important element of any pilot program is the creation,
sharing and appropriate use of performance data to allow constant
improvement to the test technology and improved risk management.
NHTSA believes that the novel challenge of assessing the safety of
the emerging technologies in vehicles with high and full driving
automation requires a commitment to timely and accurate data reporting
and analysis.
Question 9. What type and amount of data should participants be
expected to share with NHTSA and/or with the public for the safe
testing of vehicles with high and full driving automation and how
frequently should the sharing occur?
Question 10. In the design of a pilot program, how should NHTSA
address the following issues--
a. confidential business information?
b. privacy?
c. data storage and transmission?
d. data retention and reporting?
e. other elements necessary for testing and deployment?
5. Additional Considerations in Pilot Program Design
NHTSA seeks comments on whether there are additional critical areas
to consider in the design of a safe pilot program for the testing and
deployment of vehicles with high and full driving automation.
Question 11. In the design of a pilot program, what role should be
played by--
a. The 12 safety elements listed in A Vision for Safety?
b. The elements listed below,
i. Failure risk analysis and reduction during design process
(functional safety)?
ii. Objective performance criteria, testable scenarios and test
procedures for evaluating crash avoidance performance of vehicles with
high and full driving automation?
iii. Third party evaluation?
A. Failure risk reduction?
B. Crash avoidance performance of vehicles with high and full
driving automation?
iv. Occupant/non-occupant protection from injury in the event of a
crash (crashworthiness)?
v. Assuring safety of software updates?
vi. Consumer education?
vii. Post deployment Agency monitoring?
viii. Post-deployment ADS updating, maintenance and recalibration?
c. Are there any other elements that should be considered?
Question 12. Are there any additional critical areas to consider in
the design of a safe pilot program for the testing and deployment of
vehicles with high and full driving automation?
6. Issues Relating To Establishing a Pilot Program
In addition to the general issues identified above, NHTSA requests
comment on the following questions related to the development of the
potential pilot program.
i. Applications for Participation and Potential Terms of Participation
Question 13. Which of the following matters should NHTSA consider
requiring parties that wish to participate in the pilot program to
address in their applications?
[[Page 50880]]
a. ``Safety case'' for vehicles to be used in the pilot program
(e.g., system safety analysis (including functional safety analysis),
demonstration of safety capability based on objective performance
criteria, testable scenarios and test procedures, adherence to NHTSA's
existing voluntary guidance, including the submission of a voluntary
safety self-assessment, and third party review of those materials).
i. What methodology should the Agency use in assessing whether an
exempted ADS vehicle would offer a level of safety equivalent to that
of a nonexempted vehicle? For example, what methodology should the
Agency use in assessing whether an ADS vehicle steers and brakes at
least as effectively, appropriately and timely as an average human
driver?
b. Description of research goals, methods, objectives, and expected
results.
c. Test design (e.g., route complexity, weather and related road
surface conditions, illumination and institutional review board
assessment).
d. Considerations for other road users (e.g., impacts on vulnerable
road users and proximity of such persons to the vehicle).
e. Reporting of data, e.g., reporting of crashes/incidents to NHTSA
within 24 hours of their occurrence.
f. Recognition that participation does not negate the Agency's
investigative or enforcement authority, e.g., independent of any
exemptions that the Agency might issue to program participants and
independent of any terms that the Agency might establish on those
exemptions, the Agency could conduct defect investigations and order
recalls of any defective vehicles involved in the pilot program.
Further, the Agency could investigate the causes of crashes of vehicles
involved in the program.
g. Adherence to recognized practices for standardizing the
gathering and reporting of certain types of data in order to make
possible the combining of data from different sources and the making of
statistically stronger findings.
h. For which types of data would standardization be necessary in
order to make such findings and why?
i. To what extent would standardization be necessary for those
types?
j. Occupant/non-occupant protection from injury in the event of a
crash (crashworthiness).
k. Assuring safety of software updates.
l. Consumer education.
m. Post-deployment monitoring.
n. Post-deployment maintenance and calibration considerations.
Question 14. What types of terms and conditions should NHTSA
consider attaching to exemptions to enhance public safety and
facilitate the Agency's monitoring and learning from the testing and
deployment, while preserving the freedom to innovate, including terms
and conditions for each of the subjects listed in question 13? What
other subjects should be considered, and why?
ii. Potential Categories of Data To Be Provided by Program Participants
Question 15. What value would there be in NHTSA's obtaining one or
more of the following potential categories of data from the
participants in the pilot program? Are there other categories of data
that should be considered? How should these categories of data be
defined?
a. Statistics on use (e.g., for each functional class of roads, the
number of miles, speed, hours of operation, climate/weather and related
road surface conditions).
b. Statistics and other information on outcome (e.g., type, number
and cause of crashes or near misses, injuries, fatalities,
disengagements, and transitions to fallback mechanisms, if
appropriate).
c. Vehicle/scene/injury/roadway/traffic data and description for
each crash or near miss (e.g., system status, pre-crash information,
injury outcomes).
d. Sensor data from each crash or near miss (e.g., raw sensor data,
perception system output, and control action).
e. Mobility performance impacts of vehicles with high and full
driving automation, including string stability of multiple consecutive
ADS vehicles and the effects of ADS on vehicle spacing, which could
ultimately impact flow safety, and public acceptance.
f. Difficult scenarios (e.g., scenarios in which the system gave
control back to an operator or transitioned to its safe state by, for
example, disabling itself to a slow speed or stopped position).
g. Software updates (e.g., reasons for updates, extent to which
updates are made to each vehicle for which the updates are intended,
effects of updates).
h. Metrics that the manufacturer is tracking to identify and
respond to progress (e.g., miles without a crash and software updates
that increase the operating domain).
i. Information related to community, driver and pedestrian
awareness, behavior, concerns and acceptance related to vehicles with
high and full driving automation operation. For example, if vehicles
with high and full driving automation operated only in limited defined
geographic areas, might that affect the routing choices of vehicles
without high and full driving automation? For another example, if
vehicles with high and full driving automation are programmed to cede
right of way to avoid collision with other vehicles and with
pedestrians and cyclists, might some drivers of vehicles without such
automation, pedestrians and cyclists take advantage of this fact and
force vehicles with high and full driving automation to yield to them?
j. Metrics or information concerning the durability of the ADS
equipment and calibration, and need for maintenance of the ADS.
k. Data from ``control groups'' that could serve as a useful
baseline against which to compare the outcomes of the vehicle
participating in the pilot program.
l. If there are other categories of data that should be considered,
please identify them and the purposes for which they would be useful to
the Agency in carrying out its responsibilities under the Act.
m. Given estimates that vehicles with high and full driving
automation would generate terabytes of data per vehicle per day, how
should the need for data be appropriately balanced with the burden on
manufacturers of providing it and the ability of the Agency to absorb
and use it effectively?
n. How would submission of a safety assurance letter help to
promote public safety and build public confidence and acceptance?
o. For all of the above categories of information, how should the
Agency handle any concerns about confidential business information and
privacy?
B. Use of Exemptions To Provide Regulatory Relief for Pilot Program
Participants
As discussed above, NHTSA has several means to provide regulatory
relief for vehicles with high and full driving automation whose
innovative designs make compliance with existing regulations
impracticable or impossible. In this document, the Agency has outlined
and requested comment on a potential pilot program for these vehicles,
to encourage and facilitate the necessary research and data to ensure
their safe deployment and allow NHTSA to determine how to appropriately
evaluate and regulate these vehicles.
As part of this pilot program, NHTSA is considering what effect
participation in the pilot program could have on the exemption process
and vice versa.
Question 16. How should the Agency analyze safety in deciding
whether to
[[Page 50881]]
grant such exemptions under each of the separate bases for exemptions
in section 30113? Can the exemption process be used to facilitate safe
and effective ADS development in an appropriate manner?
Question 17. Could a single pilot program make use of multiple
statutory sources of exemptions or would different pilot programs be
needed, one program for each source of exemption?
Question 18. To what extent would NHTSA need to implement the
program via new regulation or changes to existing regulation?
Conversely, could NHTSA implement the program through a non-regulatory
process? Would the answer to that question change based upon which
statutory exemption provision the agency based the program on?
1. Exemptions From Prohibitions Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles Under
Section 30113
Section 30112, except as otherwise provided, e.g., under sections
30113 and 30114, prohibits any person from manufacturing for sale,
selling, offering for sale, introducing or delivering for introduction
in interstate commerce, or importing into the United States, any motor
vehicle or motor vehicle equipment manufactured on or after the date an
applicable FMVSS takes effect unless the vehicle or equipment complies
with the standard and is covered by a certification issued under
section 30115 of the Act.\24\ Under section 30113, upon application by
a vehicle manufacturer, NHTSA may exempt, on a temporary basis, motor
vehicles from a FMVSS, on terms the Agency considers appropriate, if it
finds that--
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\24\ 49 U.S.C. 30112(a)(1).
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(a) an exemption is consistent with the public interest and this
chapter or chapter 325 of this title (as applicable); and either
(b)
(i) compliance with the standard would cause substantial economic
hardship to a manufacturer that has tried to comply with the standard
in good faith;
(ii) the exemption would make easier the development or field
evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety feature providing a safety
level at least equal to the safety level of the standard;
(iii) the exemption would make the development or field evaluation
of a low-emission motor vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower
the safety level of that vehicle; or
(iv) compliance with the standard would prevent the manufacturer
from selling a motor vehicle with an overall safety level at least
equal to the overall safety level of nonexempt vehicles.\25\
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\25\ 49 U.S.C. 30113.
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A manufacturer is eligible for an economic hardship exemption only
if the manufacturer's total motor vehicle production in the most recent
year of production is not more than 10,000. An economic hardship
exemption can be granted for not more than 3 years, although it can be
renewed. Any manufacturer, regardless of its total production, is
eligible for an exemption on the other three bases listed in the
paragraph immediately above, but only if the exemption is for not more
than 2,500 vehicles to be sold in the United States in any 12-month
period. Exemptions on these three bases may be granted for not more
than 2 years and can be renewed.
Over the years, NHTSA has granted numerous exemptions under the
``substantial economic hardship'' criteria, but relatively few under
the other three bases. This proportion may change in the future. The
use of the other three bases for granting petitions for the exemption
of vehicles with high and full driving automation may become
increasingly important prior to the development of ADS-specific
standards.
Since the Act does not contain any prohibitions regarding the use
of a motor vehicle, whether compliant or noncompliant, once a
manufacturer receives an exemption from the prohibitions of section
30112(a)(1), the use of those vehicles is controlled only to the extent
that NHTSA sets terms on the exemption. Its authority to set terms is
broad. Since the terms would be the primary means of ensuring the safe
operation of those vehicles, the Agency would consider carefully what
types of terms to establish. The manufacturer would need to agree to
abide by the terms set for that exemption in order to begin and
continue producing vehicles pursuant to that exemption. Thus, if NHTSA
were to establish the collaborative pilot research program for such
vehicles discussed in this document, it could establish, for example,
reporting terms to ensure a continuing flow of information to the
Agency during and after the period of exemption to meet the Agency's,
as well as the manufacturer's, research needs. Since only a very small
portion of the total mileage that the exempted vehicles could be
expected to travel during their useful life would have been driven by
the end of the exemption period, it might be desirable for the data to
be reported over a longer period of time to enable the Agency to make
sufficiently reliable judgements. Such judgments might include a
retrospective review of the judgments that the Agency made, at the time
of granting the petition, about the anticipated safety effects of the
exemption. Regardless of the period specified for reporting, NHTSA
could also establish terms to specify what the consequences would be if
the flow of information were to cease or become inadequate during or
after the exemption period. NHTSA's regulations in 49 CFR part 555
provide that the Agency can revoke an exemption if a manufacturer fails
to satisfy the terms of the exemption.
Question 19. How could the exemption process in section 30113 be
used to facilitate a pilot program? For vehicles with high and full
driving automation that lack means of manual control, how should NHTSA
consider their participation, including their continued participation,
in the pilot program in determining whether a vehicle would meet the
statutory criteria for an exemption under section 30113? More
specifically:
a. Would participation assist a manufacturer in showing that an
exemption from a FMVSS would facilitate the development or field
evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety feature providing a safety
level at least equal to the safety level of the FMVSS, as required to
obtain an exemption under section 30113(b)(ii)? If so, please explain
how.
b. Would participation assist a manufacturer in showing that
compliance with the FMVSS would prevent the manufacturer from selling a
motor vehicle with an overall safety level at least equal to the
overall safety level of nonexempt vehicles, as required to obtain an
exemption under section 30113(b)(iv)? If so, please explain how.
c. The Agency requests comment on what role a pilot program could
play in determining when to grant an exemption from the ``make
inoperative'' prohibition under section 30122 for certain ``dual mode''
vehicles. Relatedly, what tools does NHTSA have to incentivize vehicles
with high and full driving automation that have means of manual control
and thus do not need an exemption to participate in the pilot program?
2. Exemptions From Prohibitions Concerning Noncompliant Vehicles Under
Section 30114
Next, under section 30114, the ``Secretary of Transportation may
exempt a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment from section
30112(a) of this title, on terms the Secretary decides are necessary,
for
[[Page 50882]]
research, investigations, demonstrations, training, competitive racing
events, show, or display.'' \26\ NHTSA has historically focused these
types of exemptions on the noncompliant vehicles made outside the U.S.
However, NHTSA is examining whether the language of section 30114 gives
NHTSA the discretion to create a level playing field by expanding the
coverage of exemption under that section to any vehicle, regardless of
whether it is domestic or foreign, that meets the criteria of that
section, particularly vehicles with high and full driving automation
that do not meet existing standards and whose manufacturers are or seek
to become engaged in research and demonstrations involving those
vehicles. If so, NHTSA would be able to establish the terms with which
a participant would need to comply in order to receive and continue to
enjoy the benefits of an exemption. Such terms could include a wide
variety of matters, including participation in a pilot program.
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\26\ 49 U.S.C. 30114.
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Question 20. What role could exemptions under section 30114 play in
the pilot program? Could participation in the pilot program assist a
manufacturer in qualifying for an exemption under section 30114? Could
participation be considered part of the terms the Secretary determines
are necessary to be granted an exemption under section 30114 for
vehicles that are engaged in ``research, investigations,
demonstrations, training, competitive racing events, show, or
display''?
3. Exemption From Rendering Inoperative Prohibition
Finally, NHTSA has related exemption authority with regard to the
``make inoperative'' provision in its statute. Manufacturers,
distributors, dealers, and motor vehicle repair businesses are
prohibited from knowingly making inoperative any part of a device or
element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle or motor vehicle
equipment in compliance with an applicable FMVSS unless they reasonably
believe the vehicle or equipment will not be used (except for testing
or a similar purpose during maintenance or repair) when the device or
element is inoperative.\27\
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\27\ 49 U.S.C. 30122(b).
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However, NHTSA may prescribe regulations to exempt a person or a
class of persons from this prohibition if the Agency decides the
exemption is consistent with motor vehicle safety and the purposes of
the Act. For example, pursuant to that authority, NHTSA has exempted
from the ``make inoperative'' prohibition,\28\ as a class, all motor
vehicle repair businesses that modify a motor vehicle to enable a
person with a disability to operate, or ride as a passenger in, the
motor vehicle to the extent that those modifications affect the motor
vehicle's compliance with the FMVSS or portions thereof specified in
paragraph (c) of 49 CFR part 595. Such an exemption may be warranted
for certain ``dual-mode'' vehicles, i.e., those that may be operated
with or without a human driver and are designed to have mandated and/or
regulated components, such as brake pedals, retract under specified
conditions. Comments are invited on this issue.
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\28\ 49 U.S.C. 30122.
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Question 21. What role could a pilot program play in determining
when to grant an exemption from the ``make inoperative'' prohibition
under section 30122 for certain ``dual mode'' vehicles? Relatedly, what
tools does NHTSA have to incentivize vehicles with high and full
driving automation that have means of manual control and thus do not
need an exemption to participate in the pilot program?
4. Other Potential Obstacles
The Agency also wishes to better understand any other potential
obstacles either to the development of the pilot program or vehicles
with high and full driving automation more generally.
Question 22. If there are any obstacles other than the FMVSS to the
testing and development of vehicles with high and full driving
automation, please explain what those are and what could be done to
relieve or lessen their burdens. To the extent any tension exists
between a Federal pilot program and State or local law, how can NHTSA
better partner with State and local authorities to advance our common
interests in the safe and effective testing and deployment of ADS
technology?
IV. Confidentiality of Information Provided by Program Participants
NHTSA recognizes that companies may be reluctant to share certain
data or information with the Agency in connection with an exception, an
exemption, or a pilot program because the data or information is
proprietary. The Agency notes that 49 CFR part 512 sets forth the
procedures and standards by which it will consider claims that
information submitted to the Agency is entitled to confidential
treatment under 5 U.S.C. 552(b), most often because the information
constitutes confidential business information as described in 5 U.S.C.
552(b)(4). Part 512 also addresses the treatment of information
determined to be entitled to confidential treatment. Commercial or
financial information is considered confidential if it is voluntarily
submitted to the Agency and is the type of information that is
customarily not released to the general public. The Agency is seeking
information from interested parties on how it might further protect
non-public information that the Agency might need in connection with an
exemption or pilot program.
V. Next Steps
The Agency wishes to re-emphasize that it has not made any
decisions whether to establish a pilot program or how to structure such
a program. After analyzing the public comments on this ANPRM and other
available information, NHTSA will further assess the prospects for
implementing a viable and effective program and identify the best
approach to structuring one. Once it has done so, it will issue a
notice, either an NPRM, if regulatory changes are determined to be
necessary or a request for comment, if no regulatory changes are
required, describing that approach and any promising alternative
approaches and again seek public comment. After considering that second
round of comments, the Agency will make a final decision about such a
program in a final rule, if needed, or through another notice.
VI. Regulatory Notices
This action has been determined to be significant under Executive
Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 13563, and the Department of
Transportation's Regulatory Policies and Procedures. It has been
reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget under that Order.
Executive Orders 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) and 13563
(Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review) require agencies to
regulate in the ``most cost-effective manner,'' to make a ``reasoned
determination that the benefits of the intended regulation justify its
costs,'' and to develop regulations that ``impose the least burden on
society.'' Additionally, Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 require
agencies to provide a meaningful opportunity for public participation.
Accordingly, we have asked commenters to answer a variety of questions
to elicit practical information about alternative approaches and
relevant technical data. These comments will help the Department
evaluate whether a proposed rulemaking is needed and appropriate. This
action is not subject to the requirements of E.O. 13771 (82 FR 9339,
[[Page 50883]]
February 3, 2017) because it is an advance notice of proposed
rulemaking.
VII. Public Comment
How do I prepare and submit comments?
Your comments must be written and in English. To ensure that your
comments are filed in the correct docket, please include the docket
number of this document in your comments.
Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long (49 CFR 553.21).
NHTSA established this limit to encourage you to write your primary
arguments in a concise fashion so that the Agency and the public can
more readily identify the more significant aspects of your comments.
However, you may provide additional supporting arguments and relevant
data by attaching necessary additional documents to your comments.
There is no limit on the number or length of the attachments.
Please submit one copy (two copies if submitting by mail or hand
delivery) of your comments, including the attachments, to the docket
following the instructions given above under ADDRESSES. Please note, if
you are submitting comments electronically as a PDF (Adobe) file, we
ask that the documents submitted be scanned using an Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) process, thus allowing NHTSA to search and copy
certain portions of your submissions.
How do I submit confidential business information?
If you wish to submit any information under a claim of
confidentiality, you must submit three copies of your complete
submission, including the information you claim to be confidential
business information, to the Office of the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the
address given above under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
In addition, you may submit a copy (two copies if submitting by
mail or hand delivery) from which you have deleted the claimed
confidential business information, to the docket by one of the methods
given above under ADDRESSES. When you send a comment containing
information claimed to be confidential business information, you should
include a cover letter setting forth the information specified in
NHTSA's confidential business information regulation (49 CFR part 512).
Will NHTSA consider late comments?
NHTSA will consider all comments received before the close of
business on the comment closing date indicated above under DATES. To
the extent possible, NHTSA will also consider comments received after
that date.
How can I read the comments submitted by other people?
You may read the comments received at the address given above under
Comments. The hours of the docket are indicated above in the same
location. You may also read the comments on the internet, identified by
the docket number at the heading of this document, at https://www.regulations.gov.
Please note that, even after the comment closing date, NHTSA will
continue to file relevant information in the docket as it becomes
available. Further, some people may submit late comments. Accordingly,
NHTSA recommends that you periodically check the docket for new
material.
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30101 et seq., 49 U.S.C. 30182.
Issued in Washington, DC, on October 3, 2018, under authority
delegated in 49 CFR part 1.95.
Heidi Renate King,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-21919 Filed 10-9-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P