Department of Transportation January 7, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) is seeking feedback on a proposed inclusive design challenge (Challenge) via this Request for Information (RFI). The Challenge is intended to incentivize creation of innovative, inclusive design solutions to enable access to automated vehicles (AV), also known as Highly automated Vehicles (HAV), for persons with disabilities. The Challenge seeks to emphasize the opportunities and challenges introduced by AVs which human occupants are not expected to drive, nor supervise the driving functions of the automated system, or perform any other element of the dynamic driving task as long as the vehicle remains within its operational design domain. The Challenge will solicit solutions addressing obstacles faced by persons with physical, sensory, and/or cognitive disabilities. The goal of the Challenge is to inspire inclusive designs as AVs are developed, which may also increase access to conventional vehicles today. Solutions proposed should aim to decrease the need to modify Level 4 and 5 AVs post-production, or to reduce the cost of retrofitting AVs for use by persons with disabilities, including wheelchair users.

Section 24405 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) amended the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act) to direct the Secretary of Transportation (NHTSA by delegation) to exempt annually a limited number of replica motor vehicles manufactured or imported by low-volume manufacturers from Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) that apply to motor vehicles, but not standards that apply to motor vehicle equipment. To implement the exemption program and the procedural mandates of the FAST Act, NHTSA is proposing, in a new Part 586, requirements for registering as a replica manufacturer, submitting annual reports, providing consumer disclosures, and labeling. NHTSA is proposing procedures to exempt replica vehicles produced by registrants from all the FMVSS that apply to new motor vehicles. This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) also proposes changes to Part 565, to require manufacturers to encode specific information into each replica vehicle's VIN, and to Parts 566 and 567 for manufacturer identification and vehicle certification, respectively.