SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), a Federal agency must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before it collects certain information from the public, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information by a Federal agency unless the collection displays a valid OMB control number. In compliance with these requirements, this notice announces that the following information collection request will be submitted OMB.

Title: Incident Reporting for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

OMB Control Number: 2127-0754.

Form Number(s): Form 1612.

Type of Request: Approval of a reinstatement of a previously approved collection of information with modifications.

Type of Review Requested: Regular.

Length of Approval Requested: Three years from date of approval.

Summary of the Collection of Information: The previously approved information collection request (ICR) for which NHTSA is requesting a reinstatement requires certain manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment and operators of motor vehicles to submit incident reports for

certain crashes involving ADS and Level 2 ADAS. These crash reporting obligations are set forth in NHTSA's Standing General Order 2021-01 (General Order), which requires those manufacturers and operators named in and served with the General Order to report crashes that meet specified criteria to NHTSA.^[1]

Specifically, the General Order requires the named manufacturers and operators (the reporting entities) to submit reports if they receive notice of certain crashes involving an ADS or Level 2 ADAS equipped vehicle that occur on publicly accessible roads in the United States. To be reportable, the vehicle, the ADS, or the Level 2 ADAS must have been manufactured by the reporting entity or the vehicle must have been operated by an ADS reporting entity at the time of the crash, and the ADS or Level 2 ADAS must have been engaged at the time of or immediately before (≤30 seconds) the crash. The reporting obligations are limited to those entities served with the General Order. The General Order imposes no reporting obligations on any other companies and likewise imposes no reporting obligations on any individual consumers.

In the event of a reportable crash, the General Order requires the reporting entity to submit an incident report electronically to NHTSA. The required report includes basic information sufficient for NHTSA to identify those crashes warranting follow-up. Crashes involving ADS or Level 2 ADAS equipped vehicles that meet specified criteria must be reported within five calendar days after the reporting entity receives notice of the crash, and other crashes involving ADS equipped vehicles must be reported on a monthly basis. The reporting obligations in the General Order are specific to these crashes, which are a primary source of information regarding potential defects in ADS or Level 2 ADAS.

The agency has been receiving incident reports under its previous approval. Based on the agency's experience in reviewing these reports and on the public comments it has received previously, NHTSA has amended the General Order. These amendments streamlined the reporting requirements of prior versions of the General Order to reduce burdens and more efficiently collect actionable information. These amendments refined the focus of reporting on critical safety information while removing unnecessary and duplicative requirements. The specific requirements are detailed later in this notice. In general, they streamline the reporting requirements in several key ways: (1) making reports of the most severe types of crashes due within five days and reports of less severe crashes due monthly; (2) refining the scope of crashes that are reportable for ADS and ADAS, such as by adding a property damage threshold for less severe crashes involving ADS; (3) eliminating the requirement in prior versions of the General Order that multiple entities report the same crash, except in situations where entities have different information from one another; (4) eliminating requirements that entities must update reports at designated intervals even if no new information exists; (5) eliminating the requirement that entities submit reports to NHTSA each month even if they have no crashes to report for that month; and (6) streamlining the electronic form used for reporting by eliminating data elements that are not safety critical.

More specifically, under Request No. 1 of the General Order, a reporting entity must report any crash involving an ADS or Level 2 ADAS equipped vehicle that results in any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a fatality, an air bag deployment, or that involves a strike of a vulnerable road user. If the crash involved a subject vehicle equipped with an ADS, a reporting entity must also report any crash resulting in a vehicle tow-away. Under any of these circumstances, the reporting entity must submit a report within five days after the reporting entity receives notice of the crash. Under Request No. 3, reporting entities must submit an updated report if they receive notice of any materially new or materially different information for specified fields: VIN, engagement status, source, highest severity alleged, subject vehicle damage, subject vehicle pre-crash movement, air bags deployment status for any vehicle involved, data availability, and narrative. This updated report is due on the fifteenth day of the month following the month in which they received notice of the new or different information.

Separately, under Request No. 2 of the General Order, a reporting entity must report any crash involving an ADS equipped vehicle that does not meet the previous criteria but nonetheless involves property damage. These reports are due on the fifteenth day of the month after the reporting entity receives notice of the crash. Specifically, Request No. 2 requires reports for crashes in which the property damage is reasonably expected to exceed $1,000, the subject vehicle was the only vehicle involved in the crash, or the subject vehicle struck another vehicle or object (as opposed to being struck). The reports required under Request No. 2 and Request No. 3 utilize the same form and request the same information as the five-day reports required under Request No. 1.

This information collection provides NHTSA with information it needs to carry out its statutory mandate to protect the public against unreasonable risk of accidents occurring because of the design, construction, or performance of a motor vehicle, and against unreasonable risk of death or injury in an accident.

On March 6, 2023, OMB approved NHTSA's three-year extension of its information collection for the previous version of the General Order (OMB Control No. 2127-0754). NHTSA is publishing this document to seek a reinstatement of this information collection with modifications.

NHTSA significantly reduced the burden of this information collection through its changes to streamline the ( printed page 30791) General Order. Specifically, the changes eliminated some categories of burden addressed in the prior Paperwork Reduction Act analysis, saving 5,639 burden hours annually. For other categories, NHTSA significantly reduced the burdens by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative reporting requirements. NHTSA also expects reporting to be more efficient now that most of the reporting entities have more than five years of experience and established internal processes. With these changes, along with NHTSA's improved ability to estimate burdens after more than five years of reporting under the General Order, NHTSA now estimates an annual burden of 19,208 hours—a substantial reduction from the estimated burden associated with the prior versions of the General Order. NHTSA requested comment on these estimates.

Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the Information: Under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, as amended (the Safety Act), 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301, NHTSA is charged with authority “to reduce traffic accidents and deaths and injuries resulting from traffic accidents.” To carry out this statutory mandate, NHTSA has broad information gathering authority, including authority to obtain information on vehicle crashes, potential defects related to motor vehicle safety, and compliance with legal requirements to timely identify and conduct recalls for safety defects. 49 U.S.C. 30166(e), (g), 30118-30120; 49 CFR part 510.

Both ADS and ADAS are “motor vehicle equipment” subject to the requirements of the Safety Act. Given the rapid evolution of these technologies and increasing testing of new technologies and features on publicly accessible roads, it is critical for NHTSA to exercise its oversight over potential safety defects in vehicles operating with ADS and Level 2 ADAS.

NHTSA uses the information to evaluate whether specific manufacturers (including manufacturers of prototype vehicles and equipment) are meeting their statutory obligations to ensure that their vehicles and equipment are free of defects that pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety or are recalled if such a safety defect is identified. NHTSA's oversight of potential safety defects in vehicles operating on publicly accessible roads using ADS or Level 2 ADAS requires that NHTSA have timely information on incidents involving those vehicles. In carrying out the Safety Act, NHTSA may “require, by general or special order, any person to file reports or answers to specific questions.” 49 U.S.C. 30166(g)(1)(A).

60-Day Notice: NHTSA received fourteen comments in response to the 60-day notice.^[2] Most of the comments were supportive of the three-year extension of the General Order, but also proposed various changes to the General Order. NHTSA has considered all of the comments submitted and will be retaining the General Order in its current form at this time. NHTSA believes it has struck an appropriate balance of who needs to report, when they need to report, and what they need to report to provide NHTSA with sufficient safety-critical information to determine when to investigate further without imposing an undue burden. Most of the changes proposed by commenters would alter the scope and nature of the General Order, which NHTSA does not intend for this reinstatement. NHTSA responds below to the relevant and in-scope comments it received.^[3]

Definitions

Some of the comments raised concerns with the definitions in the General Order, namely “crash” and “notice.” ^[4] The operative version of the General Order defines “crash” as:

any physical impact between a vehicle and another road user (vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist, etc.) or property that results or allegedly results in any property damage, injury, or fatality. A subject vehicle is involved in a crash if it physically impacts another road user or if it contributes or is alleged to contribute (by steering, braking, acceleration, or other operational performance) to another vehicle's physical impact with another road user or property involved in that crash.^[5]

This definition was designed to be both broad and objective, to ensure that NHTSA receives reports of incidents that will allow it to identify those that warrant further investigation, and limiting the need for reporting entities to make subjective judgment calls about whether an incident qualifies as a “crash.” Moreover, this definition remains consistent with the definition used in the previous versions of the General Order and has been in effect since 2021.^[6] NHTSA will retain this definition.

“Notice” is defined “more broadly than in 49 CFR 579.4,” specifically meaning:

information you have received from any internal or external source and in any form (whether electronic, written, verbal, or otherwise) about an incident that occurred or is alleged to have occurred, including, but not limited to vehicle reports, test reports, crash reports, media reports, consumer or customer reports, claims, demands, and lawsuits. A manufacturer or operator has notice of a crash or a specified reporting criterion ( i.e., fatality, a resulting hospital-treated injury, vehicle tow-away, air bag deployment, or the strike of a vulnerable road user) when it has notice of facts or alleged facts sufficient to meet the definition of a crash or a specified reporting criterion, regardless of whether the manufacturer has verified those facts. “Notice” does not encompass any crash that you learned about solely from another entity's report pursuant to this General Order if you have no materially additional or different information to report. If you have any other source of notice regarding this crash, your duty to report the incident runs from the date the separate notice is received.^[7]

Note that this definition includes information the reporting entity has received from “any” source and in “any” form; it is not limited to information received only from telematics. This definition is also generally consistent with the definition used in the previous versions of the General Order, again since 2021.^[8] NHTSA will retain this definition as well.

Scope of Reporting Entities

Some commenters raised issues with the scope of entities required to report under the General Order.^[9] One commenter advocated for eliminating Level 2 ADAS from the reporting requirement. NHTSA believes that continuing to collect reports from Level ( printed page 30792) 2 ADAS vehicles is necessary and appropriate for safety oversight. The Level 2 ADAS reporting received under the General Order thus far has informed numerous NHTSA investigations and provided the agency with actionable information relating to Level 2 ADAS crashes. Level 2 ADAS continues to evolve as a technology and timely reports of crashes involving the technology benefit safety. NHTSA will continue to evaluate the appropriate scope of the General Order over time, particularly as the technology develops further.

NHTSA notes that ADS (Level 4 or otherwise) and Level 2 ADAS are subject to nearly identical reporting requirements under Requests Nos. 1 and 3, regardless of whether commercial fares are collected for vehicles deploying such technologies. These requirements cover the most serious incidents, specifically those resulting in a fatality, any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a strike of a vulnerable road user, or an air bag deployment. ADS vehicles are subject to the additional requirements of reporting incidents under Request No. 1 that result in a vehicle tow-away and the requirements of Request No. 2 for less serious crashes limited to property damage. It is appropriate to subject ADS vehicles to these limited additional reporting requirements because ADS performs the entire dynamic driving task on a sustained basis within a defined operational design domain (ODD) without driver involvement. Broader reporting requirements for ADS crashes has been a consistent feature of the SGO in previous versions since its inception in 2021. At present, NHTSA has not structured the reporting requirements around specific use cases, such as “commercial ride-hailing.” Doing so here would involve a larger overhaul of the reporting system in order to identify other use cases and tailor reporting to the information most relevant to each. NHTSA declines to overhaul the General Order in this way at this time.

Reporting Requirements

Most commenters raised various issues with the reporting requirements.^[10] NHTSA appreciates these comments but will be retaining the current reporting requirements at this time. Many of the changes proposed by these commenters would increase the reporting burden, significantly in some cases, or require costly overhauls of the General Order reporting system.

Low damage ADS incidents ( i.e., where the property damage is reasonably expected to not exceed $1,000) not otherwise reportable under Request No. 1 are still reportable under Request No. 2 if the subject vehicle was the only vehicle involved in the crash or if the subject vehicle struck another vehicle or object. These limits were designed to filter out many incidents in which the subject vehicle was stationary and was struck by another vehicle. A primary goal of the recent General Order modifications was to streamline the collection process, sharpening the focus on relevant safety events and enabling NHTSA to investigate further as appropriate. To do so, NHTSA focused the reporting on the types of incident reports that have most informed its investigations. Augmenting the reporting to add new types of incident reports is inconsistent with these goals. In addition, requiring industry to report near-misses or successful automated interventions where no physical impact occurred would increase the reporting burden.

NHTSA recognizes that automated technology can contribute to incidents even when the subject vehicle is stationary. The more severe incidents of these types of crashes, such as when there is an injury or airbag deployment, are still required to be reported, allowing NHTSA to determine whether additional follow-up is warranted. NHTSA also relies on other sources, such as consumer complaints (Vehicle Owner Questionnaires or VOQs) and media reports, to determine whether an investigation is appropriate. Based on the agency's experience reviewing thousands of General Order reports since 2021, NHTSA believes that reports of “fender bender” incidents with minor damage are less likely to provide actionable information than the incident scenarios encompassed in the General Order. Since these types of reports are no longer required by the General Order, the burden has been reduced for reporting entities, allowing NHTSA to allocate its resources towards higher severity events. Independent of the General Order reporting criteria, manufacturers remain obligated to report a safety-related defect to NHTSA pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 30118.

The General Order is an early-warning mechanism to help NHTSA oversee safety defects by collecting and reviewing discrete crash incident reports. It is not currently a program designed to support normalized, “apples-to-apples” comparison scorecards of the various technologies. Adding data such as the comprehensive total fleet mileage or vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to the General Order program would alter the focus and burdens of the reporting requirements. NHTSA retains its ability to obtain additional relevant information, such as mileage or the specific SAE level, during its follow-up investigations.

Likewise, NHTSA requires some information regarding the surface conditions and crash scene in the General Order reports—information sufficient to determine whether additional investigation is appropriate—but requiring more detailed data, such as real-time congestion data, specific signal timing, or intersection phasing, would impose a higher burden on the reporting entities relative to its value in identifying safety-related defects under the current format of the General Order. To the extent additional information is relevant, the reporting entity can include it in the free-text narrative field. If NHTSA suspects that specific elements may be a factor in the crashes that are being reported, it can seek the relevant information through a follow-up request.

The General Order form already requires entities to state whether the subject vehicle was operating within its ODD at the time of the incident. Forcing manufacturers to categorize incidents into more detailed ODD classifications would complicate the reporting form unnecessarily. If NHTSA deems that information important, it can request it as part of a follow-up investigation.

The General Order governs the reporting of incidents. How a manufacturer executes a safety correction—whether through an over-the-air software update or a physical service center recall—is tracked under separate statutory recall frameworks. This information is collected by NHTSA as part of those recall procedures and is available publicly on NHTSA's website.^[11]

( printed page 30793)

NHTSA believes that 30 seconds of engagement remains an appropriate threshold for reporting to account for the handoff time between manual and automated control and potential mode confusion. Significantly changing the time of engagement now may also make it difficult to compare reporting trends with prior versions of the General Order. NHTSA will continue to consider this issue as it works to codify the General Order into regulations and welcomes additional data and research on this point.

NHTSA acknowledges that some states have duplicative or additional reporting requirements. A key principle of NHTSA's Automated Vehicles (AV) Framework is to supplant an onerous patchwork of State laws and regulations. Maintaining comprehensive and consistent Federal requirements furthers this goal, reducing the likelihood that manufacturers will face multitudinous different reporting formats. NHTSA is not inclined to change Federal requirements to avoid any conflicts that may arise with overlapping State requirements. NHTSA routinely engages with States and local authorities relating to their own reporting, encouraging them to align their requirements if they must overlap. Separately, some commenters advocated for NHTSA to modify its crash reporting database to better facilitate research, much like other NHTSA crash reporting systems. Although research is not the primary goal of the General Order, NHTSA will consider ways to publish and present the data to assist the public in reviewing the information.

Burden Estimates

Some commenters raised issues with the burden estimates.^[12] NHTSA appreciates the concerns identified, but NHTSA affirms its burden estimates at this time. NHTSA recognizes that some reports involve more complex incidents, but based on its experience reviewing thousands of General Order reports since 2021, many reports involve straightforward information. The burden estimates are designed to represent averages across the industry. NHTSA continues to believe that even as the use of these emerging technologies develop and expand, so too does the industry's familiarity and experience with these reports. These events, in conjunction with the streamlining of the required reporting in this version of the General Order, serve to reduce the overall burden of the General Order reporting program.

Publication of Data

Some comments raised issues with the public availability of the information in the General Order reports related to confidential business information (CBI) and personally identifiable information (PII) and concerns about verifying the accuracy and completeness of the public reports.^[13] As a threshold matter, NHTSA notes that the data is publicly available to everyone, including state DOTs, on NHTSA's website and updated monthly with redactions for PII and information claimed to be CBI. NHTSA reviews other sources of information, including police reports, media reports, and consumer complaints, to ensure that reportable incidents are being reported and that NHTSA has relevant available information.

NHTSA is bound by federal law and its own regulations regarding CBI and PII.^[14] NHTSA cannot release this information to third parties, including state governments. In the General Order, NHTSA limited what information reporting entities can claim to be CBI, consistent with the law and the approach taken in the previous versions of the General Order since 2021. NHTSA specified that, except for such information, “the nature of the crash-related information required by the incident report form is widely available to the public from law enforcement agencies and through motor vehicle crash databases maintained by NHTSA.” Accordingly, NHTSA provided express notice that NHTSA “will not keep this information confidential, intends to make it publicly available, and is providing no assurance to [reporting entities] to the contrary.” NHTSA will continue to review the information designated as CBI and PII in General Order reports to determine whether additional information can be released publicly consistent with Federal law.

Miscellaneous Issues

One comment proposed changing the reporting deadline for reports under Request No. 1 from five calendar days after receipt of notice of an incident to five business days.^[15] NHTSA believes five calendar days is an appropriate amount of time for such reports, and reporting entities can file reports early to avoid having to submit on a weekend or holiday.^[16] NHTSA notes that the “calendar day” standard remains consistent with the previous versions of the General Order in effect since 2021. NHTSA also notes that the five-day deadline only applies to initial reports under Request No. 1; reporting entities can submit updated reports later, subject to the requirements of Request No. 3.^[17] Moreover, in this version of the General Order, NHTSA already extended the deadline for certain reports by eliminating the one-day reporting track.

Some comments suggested requiring some form of independent or additional verification of the reported information.^[18] NHTSA does not believe this is necessary at this time. Imposing new pre-market hardware or software design standards—such as real-time, third-party verification gates or cryptographic audit ledgers—falls outside the scope of an incident reporting framework and the current Paperwork Reduction Act notice. To the extent that these suggestions are within the scope of this proceeding, NHTSA reiterates that General Order reports are only one source of information available to NHTSA for defect identification; they are not the sole or final source. In appropriate instances, NHTSA conducts additional investigations into incidents and does not rely entirely on self-reporting. Moreover, the General Order was designed to solicit reports soon after crashes occurred, while the evidence is still fresh. This is why notice under the General Order is based on allegations of a crash, rather than verified crashes. Adding a layer of verification of incidents or data would delay NHTSA receiving important information. Imposing additional verification requirements would also ( printed page 30794) increase the burdens associated with these reports.

One comment raised concerns about potential misrepresentations in marketing of ADAS technologies.^[19] While NHTSA uses General Order crash data, among other things, to evaluate whether manufacturers are adequately designing their systems for foreseeable misuse by consumers, marketing issues are beyond the scope of this proceeding.

Affected public: Vehicle and equipment manufacturers and operators of ADS or Level 2 ADAS equipped vehicles.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 110 entities.

Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 9,574 responses.

Frequency: Monthly and on occasion.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 19,208 hours.

To estimate the burden associated with this information collection, NHTSA separated the requirements of the General Order into seven components: (1) incident reports involving Level 2 ADAS that must be submitted within five days; (2) updates to incident reports involving Level 2 ADAS that must be submitted in the following month; (3) incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted within five days; (4) updates to incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted in the following month; (5) initial incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted in the following month; (6) training employees on the requirements; and (7) time to set up an account to submit the reports. The burden associated with categories (6) and (7) are one-time start-up burdens that will be incurred during the proposed extension only for new reporting entities that were added to the General Order during this period. For the approximately 114 reporting entities named in the previous General Order, this burden has already been and was accounted for under the previously approved information collection request.

The estimated number of respondents consists of the number of reporting entities. NHTSA estimates that there will be an average of 110 reporting entities during each year of the proposed extension. Currently, there are 106 reporting entities named in the General Order. NHTSA believes that additional reporting entities may be added to the General Order during the proposed extension as new companies enter the market and begin developing and manufacturing ADS and ADAS technology and vehicles equipped with these technologies. NHTSA also believes that some existing reporting entities may be removed from the General Order due to the cessation of operations or market consolidation.

Incident reports involving Level 2 ADAS that must be submitted within five days. To estimate the burden associated with submitting Level 2 ADAS crash reports, NHTSA first looked to the category of crashes that must be reported. As explained above, the General Order only requires reporting of Level 2 ADAS crashes when (1) the crash occurred on a publicly accessible road in the United States (including any of its territories); (2) the Level 2 ADAS was engaged at any time during the period from 30 seconds immediately prior to the commencement of the crash through the conclusion of the crash; and (3) the crash resulted in any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a fatality, an air bag deployment, or the strike of a vulnerable road user.^[20] These crashes must be reported within five days. Based on the number of manufacturers that manufacture vehicles equipped with Level 2 ADAS systems in calendar year 2025, NHTSA estimates that it will receive responses from approximately 43 respondents reporting Level 2 ADAS crashes each year. Further, after evaluating information available to the agency regarding the number of Level 2 ADAS crashes and the number of vehicles equipped with Level 2 ADAS, NHTSA estimates that it will receive, on average, 3,704 Level 2 ADAS related crash reports each year. This estimate includes projections based on amended reporting criteria and increasing market penetration and consumer acceptance of partial automation technologies. NHTSA believed this was a high-end estimate that could be refined further after seeking public comment. With the benefit of additional reporting history and data now, NHTSA's estimate is consistent with the number of Level 2 ADAS reports it has received under the revised requirements. NHTSA expects that the number of crash reports submitted by each respondent will vary significantly, with some respondents submitting many more reports than others. However, on average, NHTSA estimates that each respondent will submit, on average, 86 crash reports per year. NHTSA estimates that it will take respondents approximately 2 hours to compile and submit each crash report (Engineer: 1 hour; Engineering Manager: 20 minutes; Lawyer: 20 minutes; and Computer and Information Manager: 20 minutes). Therefore, NHTSA estimates the total annual burden hours for submitting Level 2 ADAS crash reports to be approximately 172 hours per respondent (2 hours × 86 crash reports) and approximately 7,396 hours for all respondents (172 hours × 43 respondents).

Updates to incident reports involving Level 2 ADAS that must be submitted in the following month. In addition to submitting information on certain Level 2 ADAS crashes within five days, reporting entities must also submit updated information, if any, by the fifteenth day in the following month. Based on NHTSA's experience with reports submitted so far, NHTSA estimates that for 9% of Level 2 ADAS crashes first reported in a five-day report, respondents may need to submit updated information. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that approximately 333 monthly reports will include updated crash information (3,704 Level 2 ADAS five-day crashes × 9%) or approximately eight updated crash reports for each of the 43 Level 2 ADAS respondents. NHTSA estimates that updating the updated crash reports will take approximately 2 hours per report. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that it will take each Level 2 ADAS respondent approximately 16 hours each year to submit Level 2 ADAS crash reports updates (2 hours × 8 crash reports) and approximately 688 hours for all Level 2 ADAS respondents (16 hours × 43 respondents).

Incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted within five days. To estimate the number of five-day ADS crash reports, NHTSA first looked to the category of crashes that must be reported. The requirements for when ADS crashes must be reported within five days are nearly the same as for Level 2 ADAS crashes, except ADS crashes involving a vehicle tow away are required to be reported. This difference accounts for the greater degree of oversight warranted for ADS-equipped vehicles, which allow the vehicle automation systems more extensive control authority over the Dynamic Driving Task (DDT). The General Order requires reporting ADS crashes when (1) the crash occurred on a publicly accessible road in the United States (including any of its territories); (2) the ADS was engaged at any time ( printed page 30795) during the period from 30 seconds immediately prior to the commencement of the crash through the conclusion of the crash; and (3) the crash resulted in any individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a fatality, an air bag deployment, vehicle tow away, or the strike of a vulnerable road user. These crashes must be reported within five days. Based on these criteria and crash reports submitted in prior versions of the General Order, NHTSA estimates that it will receive responses from 67 respondents reporting ADS crashes each year and expects that there will be approximately 5,425 ADS crashes in a year that manufacturers and operators will be required to report to NHTSA. Some of these crashes will be required to be submitted within five days, and the rest will be required to be submitted in the following month in a monthly report.

Based on NHTSA's review of crash reports already received under all versions of the General Order, NHTSA estimates that 2,810 ADS crash reports a year will be submitted within five days, or approximately 42 crash reports from each of the 67 respondents. NHTSA estimates that each ADS crash report will take 2 hours to complete and submit (Engineer: 1 hour; Engineering Manager: 20 minutes; Lawyer: 20 minutes; and Computer and Information Manager: 20 minutes). Therefore, NHTSA estimates the burden per respondent to be approximately 84 hours (42 crash reports × 2 hours) and approximately 5,628 hours for all respondents (84 hours × 67 respondents).

Updates to incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted in the following month. In addition to submitting information on certain ADS crashes within five days, manufacturers and operators must also submit updated information, if any, by the fifteenth day of the following month. NHTSA estimates that for 4% of ADS crashes first reported in a five-day report, respondents may need to submit updated information. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that approximately 112 monthly reports will include updated crash information (2,810 ADS five-day crashes × 4%), or approximately 2 reports from each of the 67 respondents. ADS typically utilize multiple sensors and cameras and tend to have relatively advanced data recording and telemetry capabilities. As a result, crashes involving vehicles where the ADS is performing the DDT can generally be reported with detail. NHTSA estimates that updating the crash reports will take approximately 2 hours per report. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that it will take each respondent approximately 4 hours each year to submit updated ADS crash reports (2 hours × 2 crash reports) and approximately 268 hours for all ADS respondents (4 hours × 67 respondents).

Initial incident reports involving ADS that must be submitted in the following month. This information collection requires ADS manufacturers and operators to submit reports of certain incidents—reportable incidents that do not meet any of the criteria for a five-day report—by the fifteenth day of the following month. To estimate the burden of these monthly reports, NHTSA considered the burden of reports of initial ADS crash reports that it has already received. NHTSA estimates there will be 67 ADS vehicle manufacturers and operators that will be required to submit monthly reports each year, for a total of approximately 2,615 monthly reports annually or approximately 39 reports per respondent.

NHTSA estimates that each monthly report submitted by an ADS manufacturer or operator will take 2 hours to submit. NHTSA estimates that there will be at least 67 ADS manufacturers and operators with some manufacturers producing both ADAS and ADS equipped vehicles. Therefore, NHTSA estimates that respondents will spend approximately 5,226 hours annually preparing and submitting monthly reports (67 ADS manufacturers and operators × 39 monthly reports × 2 hours).

Training employees on the requirements. In addition to the burden associated with preparing and submitting reports, any new reporting entities added to the General Order may also need to train employees on the reporting requirements. As explained above, the existing 106 reporting entities named in the General Order will not incur this burden during the requested extension. NHTSA estimates that there will be an average of 4 new reporting entities added to the General Order each year during the proposed extension, that an average of 4 of these new reporting entities will be ADS manufacturers or operators and that an average of 0 of these new reporting entities will be Level 2 ADAS manufacturers. However, NHTSA expects that ADS manufacturers and operators normally monitor all crashes and, therefore, will not need to train personnel on how to respond to this new information collection. Accordingly, NHTSA does not believe this category will measurably increase the burden.

Time to set up an account to submit the reports. NHTSA also estimates that new responding entities added to the General Order during the proposed extension period will need to set up a new account with NHTSA to allow them to submit reports. NHTSA estimates that each of the estimated average of 4 responding entities added to the General Order annually need to set up new accounts with NHTSA. NHTSA estimates that setting up an account will take 0.5 hours. Therefore, NHTSA estimates the total annual burden to be 2 hours.

NHTSA estimates the total annual burden hours for the seven components of this ICR to be 19,208 hours (7,396 hours for initial five-day Level 2 ADAS reports, 688 hours for updated Level 2 ADAS reports, 5,628 hours for initial five-day ADS reports, 268 hours for updated ADS reports, 5,226 hours for initial ADS monthly reports, 0 hours for training, and 2 hours for setting up new accounts), a reduction from the 31,319 hours under the previously approved collection.

To calculate the labor cost associated with preparing and submitting crash reports and reports, training, and setting up new accounts, NHTSA looked at wage estimates for the type of personnel involved with these activities. NHTSA estimates the total labor costs associated with these burden hours by looking at the average wage for architectural and engineering managers in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry (Architectural and Engineering Managers, Standard Occupational Classification #11-9041), Engineers (17-2000), Lawyers (23-1011), and Computer and Information System Managers (11-3021). NHTSA estimates the total labor costs associated with these burden hours by looking at the seventy-fifth percentile wage for architectural and engineering managers, computer and information systems managers, and engineers in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry and the seventy-fifth percentile wage for lawyers.^[21] The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that private industry workers' wages represent 70.2% of total ( printed page 30796) labor compensation costs.^[22] Therefore, NHTSA has weighted the wages accordingly, as shown in Table 1, and, based on the estimates of each role's time spent per report, calculates the average weighted hourly wage to be approximately $126.29.

Accordingly, NHTSA estimates the total labor cost associated with the estimated 19,208 annual burden hours to be approximately $2,425,778.32.

Table 2 provides a summary of the estimated burden hours and labor costs associated with each submission, resulting in a modestly different estimated annual labor cost due to rounding and excluding the time spent setting up new accounts.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: NHTSA is not aware of any additional costs respondents will incur nor does NHTSA have a basis for estimating any such costs without additional information. NHTSA believes respondents will be able to comply with requirements by only incurring labor costs associated with the burden hours.

Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspects of this information collection, including (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Department, including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; (e) ways in which the information collection could be further streamlined to reduce even more burdens while ensuring that crash reporting enables NHTSA to identify potential defects with ADS and ADAS timely.

Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29A.

91 FR 30789