[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 42 (Friday, March 2, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12907-12908]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-5098]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2010-0053]


Visual-Manual NHTSA Driver Distraction Guidelines for In-Vehicle 
Electronic Devices

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Announcement of public hearings.

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SUMMARY: On February 24, 2012, NHTSA published proposed NHTSA Driver 
Distraction Guidelines (77 FR 11200). NHTSA is announcing a set of 
public hearings relating to these proposed Guidelines. The hearings 
will provide opportunities for the public to present oral testimony 
regarding the proposal.

DATES: 
    Hearings. NHTSA will hold three public hearings on the following 
dates: March 12, 2012, in Washington, DC; March 15, 2012, in Chicago, 
Illinois; and March 16, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. Each hearing 
will start at 9 a.m. and continue until 12 p.m., local time. If you 
would like to present oral testimony at one of the public hearings, 
please contact the person identified under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT at least ten days before the hearing.
    Written comments. As announced in the proposal, to be assured of 
consideration, written comments on the proposed NHTSA Guidelines must 
be received by April 24, 2012 (77 FR 11200).

ADDRESSES:
    Hearings. The March 12, 2012 hearing will be held at the U.S. 
Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Media 
Center--Room W11-130, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590. 
The March 15, 2012 hearing will be held at the James R. Thompson 
Center, Room 16-503, 100 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601. The 
March 16, 2012 hearing will be held at West Los Angeles Field Office 
Federal Building, Ron Williams Memorial Conference Room--C-206, 11000 
Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024. The hearings will be held at 
sites accessible to individuals with disabilities.
    Written comments. As announced in the proposal, you may submit 
comments to the docket number identified in the heading of this 
document by any of the following methods:
    <bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
    <bullet> Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    <bullet> Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West 
Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    <bullet> Fax: 202-493-2251.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you would like to present oral 
testimony at one of the public hearings, please contact Kristin J. 
Kingsley, Engineering Policy Advisor and Special Assistant to the 
Deputy Administrator, Telephone (202) 366-5729; Facsimile: (202) 366-
0015; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590. Please contact Ms. Kingsley at least 
five days before the hearing date specified under DATES.
    Please provide the following information: Name, affiliation, 
address, email address, telephone and fax numbers, and whether you 
require accommodations such as a sign language interpreter or 
translator.
    For technical issues concerning the proposed NHTSA Guidelines, you 
may contact Dr. W. Riley Garrott, Vehicle Research and Test Center, 
telephone: (937) 666-3312, facsimile: (937) 666-3590. You may send mail 
to this person at: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 
Vehicle Research and Test Center, P.O. Box B-37, East Liberty, OH 
43319. You may learn more about the proposed NHTSA Guidelines by 
visiting the Department of Transportation's Web site on distracted 
driving, Distraction.gov, NHTSA's Web site, www.nhtsa.gov, or by 
searching the public docket (NHTSA-2010-0053) at www.regulations.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The proposed NHTSA Guidelines are meant to 
promote safety by discouraging the introduction of excessively 
distracting devices in vehicles. These NHTSA Guidelines, which are 
voluntary, apply to communications, entertainment, information 
gathering, and navigation devices or functions that are not required to 
operate the vehicle safely and that are operated by the driver through 
visual-manual means (meaning the driver looking at a device, 
manipulating a device-related control with the driver's hand, and 
watching for visual feedback).
    The proposed NHTSA Guidelines list certain secondary, non-driving 
related tasks that, based on NHTSA's research, are believed by the 
agency to interfere inherently with a driver's ability to safely 
control the vehicle. The Guidelines recommend that those in-vehicle 
devices be designed so that they cannot be used by the driver to 
perform such tasks while the driver is driving. For all other 
secondary, non-driving-related visual-manual tasks, the NHTSA 
Guidelines specify a test method for measuring the impact of task 
performance while driving on driving safety and time-based acceptance 
criteria for assessing whether a task interferes too much with driver 
attention to be suitable to perform while driving. If a task does not 
meet the acceptance criteria, the NHTSA Guidelines recommend that in-
vehicle devices be designed so that the task cannot be performed by the 
driver while driving.
    In addition to identifying inherently distracting tasks and 
providing a means for measuring and evaluating the level of distraction 
associated with other non-driving-related tasks, the NHTSA Guidelines 
set forth several design recommendations for in-vehicle devices

[[Page 12908]]

in order to minimize their potential for distraction.
    The proposed NHTSA Guidelines were published in the Federal 
Register on February 24, 2012 (77 FR 11200) and are available on the 
Web pages listed above under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT and also 
in the rulemaking docket. The notice is also available at http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/Distraction_NPFG-02162012.pdf.
    Background information concerning proposal in particular and the 
problem of distracted driving in general is available at http://
www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2012/
U.S.+Department+of+Transportation+Proposes+`Distraction'+Guidelines+for+
Automakers and at http://www.distraction.gov/.
    Public Hearing Procedures. For planning purposes, each speaker 
should anticipate speaking for approximately ten minutes, although we 
may need to shorten that time if there is a large number of people 
wishing to make presentations. Once we learn how many people have 
registered to speak at each public hearing, we will allocate an 
appropriate amount of time to each participant, allowing time for 
necessary breaks. In addition, we will reserve a block of time for 
anyone else in the audience who wishes to give an oral presentation.
    We request that you bring three copies of your statement or other 
material to the hearing for the NHTSA panel. To accommodate as many 
speakers as possible, we prefer that speakers not use technological 
aids (e.g., audio-visuals, computer slideshows). However, if you wish 
to do so, you must notify the contact person in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section above. You must also make arrangements to 
provide your presentation or any other aids to NHTSA in advance of the 
hearing in order to facilitate set-up.
    NHTSA will conduct the hearings informally. Thus, technical rules 
of evidence will not apply. We will arrange for a written transcript of 
each hearing. Presenters wishing to provide supplementary information 
should submit it to the address given above for written comments by the 
April 24th deadline for those comments. Panel members may ask 
clarifying questions during the oral presentations, but will not 
respond to the presentations at that time. You may make arrangements 
for copies of the transcripts directly with the court reporter. Written 
statements and supporting information submitted during the comment 
period will be considered with the same weight as oral comments and 
supporting information presented at the public hearings.

    Issued on February 27, 2012.
David L. Strickland,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012-5098 Filed 2-28-12; 4:15 pm]
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