Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection, Seat Belt Reminder Systems, Controls and Displays

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>National Highway Traffic Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 571</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. NHTSA-2024-0071]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2127-AL37</RIN> <SUBJECT>Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Occupant Crash Protection, Seat Belt Reminder Systems, Controls and Displays</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This document amends Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, “Occupant crash protection,” to require a seat belt use warning system for rear seats. The rule also updates and enhances the current seat belt warning requirements for the driver's seat belt and extends these requirements to the front outboard passenger seat. The final rule applies (with some exceptions) to passenger cars, trucks, most buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) or less. This document also makes related amendments to FMVSS No. 101, “Controls and displays.” </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective date:</E> The effective date of this final rule is March 4, 2025. <E T="03">Compliance date:</E> The compliance date of this final rule is September 1, 2026, for the front seat belt warning system requirements and September 1, 2027, for the rear seat belt warning system requirements, with optional early compliance permitted. Multi-stage manufacturers and alterers would have an additional year to comply. <E T="03">Petitions for reconsideration:</E> Petitions for reconsideration of this final rule must be received not later than February 18, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Petitions for reconsideration of this final rule must refer to the docket and notice number set forth above and be submitted to the Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Note that all petitions received will be posted without change to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided. <E T="03">Privacy Act:</E> Petitions will be placed in the docket. Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all documents received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit <E T="03">https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/privacy/privacy-act-system-records-notices.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For non-legal issues, you may contact Ms. Carla Rush, Office of Crashworthiness Standards, Telephone: (202) 366-4583; Email: <E T="03">carla.rush@dot.gov;</E> Facsimile: (202) 493-2739. For legal issues, you may contact Mr. John Piazza ( <E T="03">John.Piazza@dot.gov</E> ) or Eli Wachtel ( <E T="03">Eli.Wachtel@dot.gov</E> ), Office of Chief Counsel, Telephone: (202) 366-2992; Facsimile: (202) 366-3820. The address of these officials is: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, 20590. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Other Seat Belt Reminder Requirements and Protocols</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Summary of the NPRM</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Final Rule and Response to Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Rear Seat Belt Warning Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Applicability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Visual Warning on Vehicle Start-Up</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">i. Type of Information Conveyed by the Visual Warning and Whether Occupant Detection Should Be Required</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">ii. Lack of an Audible Warning</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">iii. Triggering Conditions for Start-of-Trip Warning (Not Including Occupant Detection Criteria)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">iv. Seat Occupancy Criteria and Interaction With Child Restraint Systems</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">v. Duration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">vi. Other Aspects</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Audio-Visual Change-of-Status Warning</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Electrical Connections/Removable Seats</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">d. Owner's Manual Instructions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">e. Telltale Location</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Alternative Warning Signals</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Front Seat Belt Warning Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Applicability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Driver's Seat Belt Warning for Light Buses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Visual and Audible Warning Duration and Activation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">4. Visibility of Visual Warning for Front Outboard Passenger Seat Belt</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">5. Front Seat Occupant Detection and Seat Occupancy Criteria</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Issues Common to the Front and Rear Seat Belt Warning Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Modification of Start-of-Trip Warning Trigger Related Ignition Switch Position To Accommodate EVs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Belt Use Criteria</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Visual Warning Characteristics</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">4. Interaction With Other Vehicle Warnings</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">5. Audible Warning Characteristics (Other Than Duration)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">6. Warning Deactivation and Acknowledgement and Hardening</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">7. Vehicles With Automated Driving Systems</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">8. Test Procedures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Regulatory Alternatives</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Overview of Benefits and Costs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Final Rule Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Rear Seat Belt Warning System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Front Seat Belt Warning System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Overall Benefits and Costs of the Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Regulatory Alternatives</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Occupant Detection in Rear Seats</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. 90-Second Front Outboard Seat Belt Warning</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Seat Belt Warning for Front Center Seat</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Compliance Dates</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">X. Regulatory Analyses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">Appendix A. List of Comments Cited in Preamble</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> This final rule amends Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS or Standard) No. 208, “Occupant crash protection,” to require a seat belt use warning system for rear seats. This rule completes NHTSA's response to a mandate in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) that directed NHTSA to initiate a rulemaking to require a seat belt warning for the rear seats in motor vehicles; it also completes NHTSA's action on a rulemaking petition from Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety for the same rule. The final rule also updates and enhances the current seat belt warning requirements for the driver's seat belt and extends these requirements to the front outboard passenger seat. The final rule applies (with some exceptions) to passenger cars, trucks, most buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles (MPVs) with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) or less. NHTSA is issuing this final rule under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act), 49 U.S.C. chapter 301, Motor Vehicle Safety (49 U.S.C. 30101 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). <HD SOURCE="HD2">Safety Need for the Final Rule</HD> Using a seat belt is one of the most effective ways a motor vehicle occupant can prevent death and injury in a crash. Seat belts prevent occupants from being ejected from the vehicle, provide “ride-down” by gradually decelerating the occupant as the vehicle deforms and absorbs energy, and reduce occupant contact with harmful interior surfaces and other occupants. Seat belts are effective in most types of crashes and greatly reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal injuries compared to the risk faced by unrestrained occupants. While seat belt use is meaningfully higher than it was a decade ago, there is room for improvement. Usage rates for seat belts in rear seats have consistently been below those for the front seats; and while front seat belt use rates increased in the early 2010s, for the last several years they have plateaued. According to data from NHTSA's annual study of observed seat belt use, in every year from 2013 through 2022, seat belt use was lower in the rear seats than in the front seats, ranging from a difference of about 9 percentage points in 2013 (78 percent vs. 87 percent) to about 14 percentage points in 2017 (75 percent vs. 89 percent). In 2022, front seat belt use was about 91.6 percent and rear seat belt use was about 81.7 percent. Every year, thousands of unrestrained motor vehicle occupants are killed in crashes and tens of thousands of unrestrained occupants are injured (additional details on the target population are provided in the summary of benefits and costs later in this executive summary). Seat belt warning systems (also referred to as seat belt reminder systems) encourage seat belt use by reminding unbuckled occupants to fasten their belts and/or by informing the driver that a passenger is unbelted so that the driver can request the unbelted occupant to buckle up. The warnings provided by seat belt warning systems typically consist of visual and/or audible signals ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 533k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━