Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety

This ICR is for a voluntary disclosure of information to the public by entities involved in the testing and deployment of Automated Driving Systems (ADSs). The entities engaged in ADS development and testing may demonstrate how they address – via industry best practices, their own best practices, or other appropriate methods – the safety elements contained in the Voluntary Guidance section of Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety by publishing a Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment (VSSA). The VSSA is intended to demonstrate to the public (particularly States and consumers) that entities are: (1) considering safety aspects of ADSs; (2) communicating and collaborating with DOT; (3) encouraging the self-establishment of industry safety norms for ADSs; and (4) building public trust, acceptance, and confidence through transparent testing and deployment of ADSs. This collection, a reporting collection, allows companies an opportunity to showcase their approach to safety, without needing to reveal proprietary intellectual property. Disclosure of information in the VSSA would be publicly accessible and foreseeably accessed by members of the public, State stakeholders, and consumer-based stakeholders. NHTSA anticipates any respondents for the information collection would provide the VSSA once in the three-year approval period. This is a revision of a currently approved IC to both extend the approval period and include revisions to the burden calculations based on NHTSA’s observations of the current collection and the previous associated collections dating back to 2017. NHTSA has collated a list of entities in the ADS space that could potentially develop a VSSA and used previous VSSA publication to estimate the number of new VSSAs that may be developed each year for the subsequent three years. This results in a lower estimate of the number of respondents for the collection and thus a lower estimate of annual burden and labor costs. The current collection estimated 20 respondents per year, each responding once in that year. The burden associated with disclosure recommendations via a VSSA would be 600 hours per respondent. The annual burden associated with the information collection was calculated as 12,000 hours and $1,168,320 in labor costs. The revisions estimate four entities will publish a VSSA every year and will publish only once in the three-year period. As there have been no disagreements with the burden hour calculation for an individual VSSA, the annual burden hours for this collection are revised to 2,400 hours. The labor cost associated with this revision are $282,384. This is a decrease of 9,600 burden hours per year. Additionally, there is a decrease in labor costs of $885,936 per year. NHTSA estimates that respondents will not incur any costs beyond hourly labor costs.

The latest form for Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety expires 2028-04-30 and can be found here.