60496 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 11, 2000 / Notices

This yacht is uniquely valuable in that

it has been raced under similar

conditions, in a similar race while

manned by individuals who had little,

if any, sailing experience before sailing

aboard such a yacht. This yacht most

accurately represents the look, feel and

impact that the 10 yachts in the race

will have on the sailors, media, press,

sponsors and supporters. Given its

historical connection to a similar race,

no newly built U.S. yacht could preform

(sic) the same role. Further, we are not

aware of any similar yachts currently

under construction in the U.S.’’

Dated: October 4, 2000.

By Order of the Maritime Administrator.

Joel C. Richard,

Secretary, Maritime Administration.

[FR Doc. 00–25995 Filed 10–10–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–81–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket Number: MARAD–2000–8061]

Requested Administrative Waiver of

the Coastwise Trade Laws

AGENCY: Maritime Administration,

Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Invitation for public comments

on a requested administrative waiver of

the Coastwise Trade Laws for the vessel

Challenge Business 35.

SUMMARY: As authorized by Pub. L. 105–

383, the Secretary of Transportation, as

represented by the Maritime

Administration (MARAD), is authorized

to grant waivers of the U.S.-build

requirement of the coastwise laws under

certain circumstances. A request for

such a waiver has been received by

MARAD. The vessel, and a description

of the proposed service, is listed below.

Interested parties may comment on the

effect this action may have on U.S.

vessel builders or businesses in the U.S.

that use U.S.-flag vessels. If MARAD

determines that in accordance with Pub.

L. 105–383 and MARAD’s regulations at

46 CFR Part 388 (65 FR 6905; February

11, 2000) that the issuance of the waiver

will have an unduly adverse effect on a

U.S.-vessel builder or a business that

uses U.S.-flag vessels, a waiver will not

be granted.

DATES: Submit comments on or before

November 13, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to

docket number MARAD–2000–8061.

Written comments may be submitted by

hand or by mail to the Docket Clerk,

U.S. DOT Dockets, Room PL–401,

Department of Transportation, 400 7th

St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590–0001.

You may also send comments

electronically via the Internet at http://

dmses.dot.gov/submit/. All comments

will become part of this docket and will

be available for inspection and copying

at the above address between 10 a.m.

and 5 p.m., E.T., Monday through

Friday, except federal holidays. An

electronic version of this document and

all documents entered into this docket

is available on the World Wide Web at

http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Gordon Angell, U.S. Department of

Transportation, Maritime

Administration, MAR–832 Room 7201,

400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington,

DC 20590. Telephone 202–366–5129.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title V of

Pub. L. 105–383 provides authority to

the Secretary of Transportation to

administratively waive the U.S.-build

requirements of the Jones Act, and other

statutes, for small commercial passenger

vessels (no more than 12 passengers).

This authority has been delegated to the

Maritime Administration per 49 CFR

§ 1.66, Delegations to the Maritime

Administrator, as amended. By this

notice, MARAD is publishing

information on a vessel for which a

request for a U.S.-build waiver has been

received, and for which MARAD

requests comments from interested

parties. Comments should refer to the

docket number of this notice and the

vessel name in order for MARAD to

properly consider the comments.

Comments should also state the

commenter’s interest in the waiver

application, and address the waiver

criteria given in § 388.4 of MARAD’S

regulations at 46 CFR Part 388.

Vessel Proposed for Waiver of the U.S.-

Build Requirement

(1) Name of vessel and owner for

which waiver is requested. Name of

vessel: Challenge Business 35. Owner:

Challenge Business International, Ltd.

(2) Size, capacity and tonnage of

vessel. According to the applicant: ‘‘The

yacht is 66.24′ long, has a breadth of

17.32′ and a depth of 8.6′. Under our

Simplified Rules, (46 CFR Part 69), the

yacht has a gross tonnage of 49.33 and

a net tonnage of 44.40.’’

(3) Intended use for vessel, including

geographic region of intended operation

and trade. According to the applicant:

‘‘The yacht will be used to generate

interest in a race called the New World

Challenge. In that race, ordinary people,

from all walks of life, often with little

or no sailing experience, will become

members of the crew. They will sail on

10 newer, slightly larger boats that will

depart from San Francisco and sail to

Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Cape

Town, Buenos Aires, Cape Horn, and

back to San Francisco. The interest, love

and excitement of sailing such boats, in

difficult conditions, over a period of

approximately 10 months, will be

supported by a number of corporate

sponsors who expect to benefit from the

team building aspect of the race and the

publicity that the race will generate. In

addition, a selected charity will receive

approximately $1,000,000.00.’’ ‘‘This

yacht will be based in Boston,

Massachusetts, and may be sailed

anywhere between Maine and Florida.’’

(4) Date and Place of construction and

(if applicable) rebuilding. Date of

construction: 1996. Place of

construction: United Kingdom.

(5) A statement on the impact this

waiver will have on other commercial

passenger vessel operators. According to

the applicant: ‘‘This activity will have

absolutely no impact on any existing

commercial passenger operation. The

yacht we propose to use has been sailed

in another race organized by Challenge

Business. This yacht is very similar in

size, design, living accommodations,

communications capability, sail area,

equipment, handling characteristics, etc.

to the 10 boats that will be competing

in the race. Thus, it is the most

representative, ‘‘experienced’’, boat that

could be used for the intended

purposes. No existing commercially

operated yacht can duplicate the feel,

characteristics and overall experience of

sailing in the New World Challenge

race.’’

(6) A statement on the impact this

waiver will have on U.S. shipyards.

According to the applicant: ‘‘Similarly,

the proposed activity will have

absolutely no impact on U.S. shipyards.

This yacht is uniquely valuable in that

it has been raced under similar

conditions, in a similar race while

manned by individuals who had little,

if any, sailing experience before sailing

aboard such a yacht. This yacht most

accurately represents the look, feel and

impact that the 10 yachts in the race

will have on the sailors, media, press,

sponsors and supporters. Given its

historical connection to a similar race,

no newly built U.S. yacht could preform

(sic) the same role. Further, we are not

aware of any similar yachts currently

under construction in the U.S.’’

Dated: October 4, 2000.

By Order of the Maritime Administrator.

Joel C. Richard,

Secretary, Maritime Administration.

[FR Doc. 00–25996 Filed 10–10–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–81–P

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 11, 2000 / Notices 60497

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA–00–8064]

Drowsy Driver Detection Device

Laboratory Validation

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic

Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of Research Activity.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of

Transportation (US DOT) is seeking

partners who have the potential of

providing non-contact eye closure

monitoring sensors that can be used in

a drowsy driver detection system field

operational test. This notice describes

criteria and tests that will be applied to

each candidate sensor as part of the

determination of fitness for inclusion in

a field operational test. Manufacturers of

devices that may meet these criteria are

invited to submit a description of their

device and detailed instructions on

operations of the device to the US DOT.

Each device must satisfy the following

criteria: (1) The device must measure

the percentage of eyelid closure over

time (PERCLOS) and calculate

PERCLOS 1 and/or PERCLOS 3 (oneminute and three-minute running

averages of PERCLOS, respectively); (2)

this measurement must occur in real

time; (3) the device shall be unobtrusive

and have no physical contact with the

driver; (4) the device shall cause no

harmful emissions of any type over the

duration of the experiment; and (5) the

device operation shall include no

moving parts that could easily fail or

that would require replacement, service,

or routine maintenance by the driver.

Any device that meets the above

criteria may be included in a US DOT

sponsored laboratory research study to

evaluate the validity and reliability of

its real-time drowsiness detection

capability. Previous research has

demonstrated the feasibility of

implementing a drowsiness detection

system with physical eyelid closure as

a continuous input. A successful device

should demonstrate that it can provide

a valid measure of alertness during a

vigilance task and that this detection is

repeatable (reliability). In addition to

being valid and reliable, this device

needs to be practical, and must meet

additional standards of high sensitivity

and high specificity. Thus the device

must detect all (or nearly all) fatigue

events and fatigued vehicle operators

(high sensitivity), without false alarms

(high specificity.)

The offeror understands that the

device, if selected to participate in the

laboratory validation study, will be

provided on an as-is basis, requiring no

further engineering or development and

should be operationally ready. Second,

the analysis that is derived from this

laboratory research will be made

publicly available and the device

returned to the submittor, and third, the

offeror shall in no way interfere with the

procedures or personnel involved in

conducting or managing the study.

Furthermore:

1. Previous studies and research

involving the device may be disclosed

and provided to the government to

assist in evaluating the ‘‘fitness’’ of the

device for evaluation.

2. Selection to participate in the

laboratory validation study will NOT

constitute an endorsement of the device

by the federal government.

3. A small budget shall exist to ensure

the appropriate hookup of the device to

the experimental apparatus.

4. Involvement does not constitute a

promise of future relations with the

federal government.

The devices will be tested in a

laboratory in a double blind testing

methodology. Results will be sent back

to manufacturer for interpretation. The

US DOT is only interested in testing

devices that are operationally ready, not

devices under development.

DATES: Submit device descriptions on or

before November 27, 2000.

ADDRESSES: All proposals should refer

to Docket No. NHTSA–00–8064 and be

submitted to Docket Management, Room

PL–401, 400 7th Street, SW,

Washington, D.C. 20590. Docket hours

are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday

through Friday. Proposals may also be

sent by electronic submission. The

electronic submission procedure is

described in the Docket Management

section of the DOT’s web site: http://

www.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul

Rau, Office of Vehicle Safety Research,

NHTSA, (202) 366–0418; or Mr. Robert

Carroll, Office of Research and

Technology, FMCSA, (202) 366–9109,

400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington,

DC 20590–0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The DOT has created a program titled

the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI).

The goal of the IVI program is to

increase safety on the nation’s highways

through the acceleration of the

deployment of on-vehicle safety

devices. One of the primary focus areas

of the IVI is (commercial) motor vehicle

driver fatigue. Further information on

the IVI program may be found on:

www.its.dot.gov/ivi. Additionally, the

DOT has the goal of reducing truck

involved fatalities by 50% by the year

2010. Additional information

concerning DOT and commercial motor

vehicle safety goals may be found on:

www.fmcsa.dot.gov and

www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

Further, technical conferences were

held in 1997 and 1999, to discuss

scientific validation findings regarding

PERCLOS and other eye activity

measures of alertness, and the status of

efforts to develop in-vehicle sensors to

continuously measure PERCLOS. The

conferences were the primary focus of

U.S. DOT-sponsored research over the

past decade demonstrating the validity

of PERCLOS as a measure of driver

vigilance performance and also explored

related psycho physiological alertness

measures and alertness monitoringrelated issues. The conferences

reviewed potential and appropriate uses

of PERCLOS data and ways to ensure

the active participation and acceptance

of drivers and management. The 1999

conference report, Ocular Measures of

Driver Alertness: Technical Conference

Proceedings (FHWA–MC–99–136) is

available from National Technical

Information Service (NTIS) (PB2000–

101412), telephone: (703) 605–6000.

The vigilance task testing will be

conducted in a controlled laboratory

environment, similar to the previous

work sponsored by NHTSA and

FMCSA. A detailed description of this

previous research, as well as the

findings, can be obtained from the

report entitled ‘‘Evaluation of

Techniques for Ocular Measurement as

an Index of Fatigue and the Basis for

Alertness Management’’ published by

the US DOT/NHTSA Report #DOT HS

808–762 is also available from NTIS. A

summary in the form of an FMCSA

Technical Analysis Brief may be found

on http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/

safetyprogs/research/researchpubs.htm.

Each device will be tested on sleep

deprived subjects who will remain

awake for 42 hours, while working on

a computerized test battery every two

hours. The tests include a 20 minute

psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) each

two hours. PVT performance lapses

refer to the times when a subject fails to

respond to a task in a timely manner

(i.e. <500 msec.); lapses will be recorded

for each minute for the entire 20

minutes.

PVT lapses will be used as the

validation criteria variable because

driving is a vigilance task requiring

psychomotor reactions, and

psychomotor vigilance has been

previously validated in medical

research to be very sensitive to fatigue