National Highway Traffic Safety Administration August 17, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this document, we update our standard regulating motor vehicle controls, telltales and indicators. The standard specifies requirements for the location, identification, and illumination of these items. This rule extends the standard's telltale and indicator requirements to vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kg (10,000 pounds) and greater, updates the standard's requirements for multi-function controls and multi-task displays to make the requirements appropriate for advanced systems, and reorganizes the standard to make it easier to read. The standard requires, among other things, that certain controls, telltales and indicators be identified by specified symbols or words. While we proposed to expand the list of items for which specified identification is required, we decided, for purposes of this rule, to include only the items and identification previously specified in this standard or in another of our standards.

Our safety standard on theft protection specifies vehicle performance requirements intended to reduce the incidence of crashes resulting from theft and accidental rollaway of motor vehicles. As a result of technological advances in the area of theft protection, the terminology used in the regulatory text of the Standard has become outdated and incompatible with key-locking systems that employ electronic codes to lock and unlock the vehicle, and to enable engine activation. This document proposes to amend and reorganize the regulatory text of the Standard so that it better correlates to modern theft protection technology and reflects the agency's interpretation of the existing requirements. The proposed requirements would not impose any new substantive requirements on vehicle manufacturers.