NHTSA Phase 2 OBB Generic Clearance

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2127-0682)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on How to Communicate More Effectively with Consumers about Automated Driving Systems.

PURPOSE:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is responsible for keeping people safe on America’s roadways and its mission is to save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards and enforcement activity.

NHTSA previously conducted a series of focus groups to generate a greater understanding of the driving public and how they think about the six different levels of vehicle automation technology, what types of technologies comprise those levels and how to effectively communicate the functions of these technologies. NHTSA plans to build off of that research to improve the agency’s ability to engage the public through increased awareness of autonomous driving systems, functions and levels of vehicle automation; inform NHTSA’s messaging efforts to better educate consumers on automated driving systems; and increase public confidence with the technology to accelerate their adoption, with the ultimate goal to save more lives.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The research will include a total of nine online bulletin boards (one per census region). We will recruit a total of 30 participants per board (270 in total). Respondents will be recruited from one of nine geographic regions as defined in the U.S. Census.

The respondents must be ages 18 or older and either…

1. have a valid driver’s license, are a decision-maker (primary or shared) for purchasing vehicles for their household, have either purchased a vehicle (model year 2016+) in the last 12 months or are likely to do so in the next 12 months, and vehicle safety must be at least somewhat important in their purchase decision (recruiting target of n=27-28 per board; n=243-252 total)

OR

2. do not have a license due to a disability or medical issue, they are no longer comfortable driving, have been advised not to drive by a doctor, or have their license revoked, has complete/shared control over the transportation options they use, and is at least somewhat interested in transportation options beyond what is available today (recruiting target of n=2-3 per board; n=18-27 total)

In addition, participants will be screened to ensure a good mix of key demographic criteria (gender, race/ethnicity, and employment status) as well as specific socioeconomic factors (household income and education).

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Online Bulletin Board

An online bulletin board is similar to traditional focus groups in that it allows for a group of people to come together to have a moderated discussion about a topic. There are several advantages of conducting an online bulletin board versus in person focus groups. One key advantage of online bulletin boards is that they allow participants to be drawn from a nationwide audience.

We will recruit and field one online bulletin board per each of the nine census regions (nine online boards in total). For each of the nine online bulletin boards we will recruit 30 participants. Our past experience shows that it is necessary to recruit 30 participants in order to obtain 25 active participants which is the desired number for this research). In total, we will recruit 270 participants with the expectation of having 225 actively engage in the online bulletin board. The table below shows the number recruits vs. expected actively engaged participants per region.

Region	Recruitment
New England	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
Middle Atlantic	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
East North Central	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
West North Central	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
South Atlantic	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
East South Central	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
West South Central	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
Mountain	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
Pacific	Recruit 30 for 25 to participate
Total	Recruit 270 for 225 to participate

Another the key advantage of online bulletin boards comes from a lower respondent time commitment and burden. Online bulletin boards require a time commitment of 15-20 minutes per day over the course of three days for a total of 45-60 minutes without any additional travel time required. While online bulletin board participants are required to log in to the bulletin board multiple times a day to react to other participant’s comments, the overall time commitment is substantially less for online bulletin boards when compared to traditional in-person focus groups.

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name: Susan McMeen

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [X] Yes [ ] No

The third-party vendor collects information from the research participants in order to provide them with the incentive. No PII is reported to NHTSA. No responses will be connected to individual respondents; only aggregate data will be reported.

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [X] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [X] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [X] Yes [ ] No

It is standard practice to provide a basic incentive in order to avoid bias of receiving responses only from individuals generally predisposed to be helpful. Participants in this research will not be offered incentives provided directly by NHTSA. The third-party vendor will fulfill incentives at the standard rate of $75 for each participant.

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Pre-screen completes (Initial outreach from recruiter to find potential respondents interested in participating in research who meet screening requirements)	900	3.0 minutes	45 hours
Validation screener (Follow-up among those who qualify and fit quota targets for screening estimated 30%)	270	1.5 minutes	6.75 hours
Each regional online bulletin board (Execution of the online bulletin boards among those who are interested, qualify and are available the date/time of the groups)	225	60 minutes	225 hours
GRAND TOTAL BURDEN HOURS				276.75 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $204,400

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

Convenience samples of research participants are screened and recruited to reflect the target audience. NHTSA plans to work with Heart+Mind Strategies and Focus Forward, third-party vendors, to recruit individuals that meet the criteria for our audience. Recruitment will take place using Focus Forward’s own double opt-in panel. A link to an online screening instrument will be sent in an email invitation, followed by additional instructions for joining the online bulletin board should a respondent qualify to participate. Recruitment will be monitored to include a mixture of gender, age, race/ethnicity, income and education within each region.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

5