SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), before an agency submits a proposed collection of information to OMB for approval, it must first publish a document in the Federal Register providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise consult with members of the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of information. The OMB has promulgated regulations describing what must be included in such a document. Under OMB's regulation (at 5 CFR 1320.8(d)), an agency must ask for public comment on the following: (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic submission of responses. In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public comments on the following proposed collection of information for which the agency is seeking approval from OMB.

Title: Driver Monitoring System (DMS)—Applied Research to Develop Test Procedure for Drowsiness.

OMB Control Number: New.

Form Number(s): NHTSA Forms 2117, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2122, 2123, 2124, 2125, 2126, and 2127.

Type of Request: Approval of a new information collection request.

Type of Review Requested: Regular.

Requested Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from date of approval.

Summary of the Collection of Information: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) an operating mode of the U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking approval for a one-time voluntary information collection from 48 licensed drivers of various ages for a research study to identify approaches, procedures, and metrics to evaluate drowsy driver DMS performance with human subjects. Factors of interest include methods to induce drowsiness, test drive methods ( i.e., driving simulator, closed course), measures to identify drowsiness, level of drowsiness to detect, sensitivity and specificity of detection, and driver characteristics and testing conditions that are important for inclusion. This collection will not develop an objective test procedure for use in a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. The data collection will include integrated studies that feature test track driving in the Phoenix, Arizona area and a driving simulator driving in Iowa City, Iowa. For the test track portion of the study, participants will be assigned to one of three drive times (11 p.m., 1:30 a.m., 4 a.m.), will be asked to wake at least 16 hours before the start of the study drive, and will also be asked to refrain from napping or consuming caffeine within the final 13 hours before their study drive. The test track portion of the data collection will include a consenting process, a food, drink, and activity log, a breathalyzer test, a 2-hour study drive during dark, nighttime conditions, and a final debrief. The participants' driving data will be collected in the study-provided vehicle using a GoPro camera, an infrared (IR) camera, and a driver monitoring system (DMS). NHTSA expects to provide screening questionnaires to 100 potential participants to determine their eligibility for the test track portion of the study. Recruiting participants for the test track portion of the study has an estimated burden of approximately 25 hours for the screening questions. While the goal is 24 final participants, the research team will ensure eligibility and interest of 36 participants to account for potential attrition. Total burden for the test track portion of the study is 133 hours and the average over the three-year approval is 44 hours.

For the driving simulator portion of the study, NHTSA expects to provide screening questionnaires to 150 potential participants to determine their eligibility for the study. Recruiting participants for the driving simulator portion of the study has an estimated burden of approximately 22.5 hours for the screening questions. While the goal is 24 final participants, the research team will ensure eligibility and interest of 100 participants to account for potential attrition. Prior to the overnight visit, participants will be asked to wake at least 16 hours before the start of their study drive ( e.g., wake at 7 a.m. for a 11 p.m. drive time) and to refrain from napping, exercise, caffeine, alcohol, and other drug use before the visit. Participants will complete questionnaires throughout the visit that collect information regarding demographics, sleep and food intake over the last 24 hours, and how they feel related to sleepiness and well-being. Participants will complete a 10-minute screening drive then wait in a conference room until their scheduled study drive time. Participants will drive ( printed page 55164) for two hours in the simulator. During the drive, participants will complete sleepiness questionnaires every 10 minutes on the simulator's integrated display. The total burden for the driving simulator portion of the study is 187.5 hours and the average over the three-year approval is 62.5 hours. The total expected burden for this collection (test track + driving simulator driving) is 320.5 hours. This collection will be used to conduct a final evaluation of the test protocol for DMS detection and classification of drowsiness to aid NHTSA's goal for the protocol to be deployed by different groups of testers (manufacturers, researchers, regulators) to evaluate DMS efficacy. NHTSA will use the information to produce a technical report that will provide summary figures and tables, as well as the results of data analysis of the information. No personally identifiable information or individual responses will be reported or published. The technical report will be made available to the public through the NHTSA website and the National Transportation Library. This project involves approval by an institutional review board, which the contractor will obtain before contacting potential participants. This data collection will directly support NHTSA's goal of developing a test protocol that different groups of testers (manufacturers, researchers, government entities) can implement with a robust and validated approach to inducing different levels of drowsiness, collecting ground truth and driving data, and using the data to evaluate DMS efficacy.

Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the Information: NHTSA's mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards and enforcement activity. Drowsiness plays a large and often underestimated role in traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths in the United States. While driver drowsiness is recorded as a factor in only about 2.5%of fatal crashes nationwide, research by the American Automobile Association's Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAA FTS) has estimated that as many as 6-10% of all police-reported crashes and 16%-21% of fatal crashes may involve driver drowsiness. In 2016, NHTSA released the Drowsy Driving Research and Program Plan that described efforts related to quantifying the problem, building public awareness and education, developing policy, identifying high-risk populations, and advancing vehicle technology and infrastructure. One technology solution is a driver monitoring system (DMS), which refers to technologies intended to detect impairment and/or classify the state of the driver, whether drowsy, distracted, or otherwise impaired.

There is no consensus approach to how DMS should be tested for drowsiness detection. Testing has been conducted across a range of sample sizes and population characteristics in varied and often poorly controlled environments. As more DMS systems are deployed, it is critical that developers, manufacturers, designers, and other evaluators be able to assess them in a rigorous, repeatable way. The European New Car Assessment Procedures (Euro NCAP) ^[1] specify that DMS manufacturers should provide data that support the ability of their systems to classify a driver as drowsy based on subjective ratings, microsleep detection (specifically eyelid closures), and sleep detection (eyelid closures longer than 3 seconds). However, Euro NCAP does not specify the conditions under which DMS should be evaluated, including the type of driving task, specific driver characteristics, and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the criteria used to define drowsiness reflect the late stages of drowsiness, once drivers are near sleep and where countermeasures may no longer be effective. Whereas severe drowsiness may be relatively easy to detect due to clear symptoms ( e.g., long eye closures), countermeasures may be more useful when the driver is mildly or moderately drowsy. This data collection will directly support NHTSA's goal of developing a test protocol that different groups of testers (manufacturers, researchers, government entities) can implement with a robust and validated approach to inducing different levels of drowsiness, collecting ground truth and driving data, and using the data to evaluate DMS efficacy.

Affected Public: Study volunteers in the Phoenix, Arizona and Iowa City, Iowa area. The study plans to recruit participants aged 18 and older. Efforts will be made to enroll a diverse age sample that broadly represents the age of the U.S. driving population and includes those at greater risk of crashing ( e.g., less than 25 years of age and greater than 65 years of age).

Estimated Number of Respondents: The total number of estimated respondents is 66 (36 test track participants and 30 driving simulator participants). For the test track portion of the study, we anticipate screening 100 potential participants to obtain 36 individuals who meet study inclusion criteria. It is estimated that 35% of those who begin the screening process will be eligible and agree to participate in the test track portion. As such, we anticipate conducting a maximum of 100 individual eligibility interviews to recruit the necessary participants for the test track portion of the study. While the goal is 24 final participants, the research team will ensure eligibility and interest of up to 36 participants to account for potential attrition. For the driving simulator portion of the study, we anticipate screening 150 potential participants to obtain 30 individuals who meet study inclusion criteria. It is estimated that 67% of those who begin the screening process will be eligible and agree to participate in the study. We anticipate conducting a maximum of 150 individual eligibility interviews to recruit the necessary participants for the driver simulator portion of the study. While the goal is 24 final participants, the research team will ensure eligibility and interest of 30 participants to account for potential attrition. Based on experience with similar studies, the screening process via phone provides sufficient information to participants to determine their interest in the study, thus little to no attrition is expected during the informed consent process.

Frequency: This study is a one-time information collection.

Estimated Number of Responses: Each respondent will complete the full study procedure one time. The study procedure contains multiple information collections, with different collections applicable to test track participants and driving simulator participants. Table 1 provides the full list of collections, including which ones apply to test track and which apply to driving simulator.

Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 106.8

The annual estimated burden is 106.8 hours. This is calculated as follows. First, as stated above, the research team will ensure eligibility and interest of 100 participants for the test track portion of the study and 150 participants for the driving simulator portion of the study to account for potential attrition, and therefore burden calculations are reflective of 250 participants in order to provide a conservative estimate. This estimate includes 47.5 hours for 250 potential participants to complete the initial screening for the test track and driving simulator portions of the study. Second, the test track study tasks include a 15-minute food, drink, and activity log, a 5-minute breathalyzer test, a 15-minute vehicle familiarization and KSS ( printed page 55165) training, a 120-minute study drive, and a 10-minute final debriefing. The burden estimate for the test track portion of the study is 133 hours, including 9 hours for the consenting process and 99 hours to complete all test track tasks. Third, the driving simulator study tasks include a 5-minute food, drink, and activity log, a 1-minute demographic questionnaire, a 2-minute wellness questionnaire, a 15-minute simulator training and acclimation procedure, a waiting period (averaging 150-minutes), a 1-minute KSS questionnaire, a 125-minute driving behavior assessment, and a 2-minute end of visit release agreement. The burden estimate for the driving simulator portion of the study is 187.5 hours, including 7.5 hours for the consenting process and 157.50 hours to complete all driver simulator tasks. The total burden estimate is the sum of both the test track and the driving simulator driving activities and includes screening, consenting, and completing all of the test track and driving simulator driving activities for a total estimate of 320.5 hours. The details are presented in Table 1 below.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: 0.

Participation in this study is voluntary, and there are no costs to respondents beyond the time spent completing the questionnaires and visits to the study facility. Further, there is no preparation of data required or expected of respondents, thus there are no record keeping costs to the respondents. Participants do not incur capital and start-up costs, nor do they incur fuel costs as the vehicles being driven during the study are not the participants vehicles. For individuals who participate in the test track portion of the study, they will be offered 400 as compensation for completing the study requirements, plus up to 25 in transportation compensation to cover their ride to and from the test facility. For the driving simulator portion of the study, participants will be offered 230, 290, or 350 as compensation for completing the study requirements, depending on their overnight visit start time. Previous experience indicates that anything less than the proposed total compensation would likely result in failure to recruit enough participants to provide meaningful results. This level of ( printed page 55166) compensation is in line with past similar efforts given the activities it requires of participants while not being coercive. This compensation amount also helps offset any transportation costs ( e.g., travel time, gas, etc.) that participants may incur.

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.

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 55162