Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., Receipt of Petition for Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance

AGENCY:

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

ACTION:

Receipt of petition.

SUMMARY:

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen), has determined that certain MY 2017-2019 Audi A3 motor vehicles do not comply with Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) No. 101, Controls and Displays. Volkswagen filed a noncompliance report dated February 18, 2019, and later amend it on September 13, 2019. Volkswagen subsequently petitioned NHTSA on February 20, 2019, for a decision that the subject noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety. This document announces receipt of Volkswagen's petition.

DATES:

Send comments on or before November 7, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

Interested persons are invited to submit written data, views, and arguments on this petition. Comments must refer to the docket and notice number cited in the title of this notice and submitted by any of the following methods:

• Mail: Send comments by mail addressed to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590.
• Hand Delivery: Deliver comments by hand to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. The Docket Section is open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for Federal Holidays.
• Electronically: Submit comments electronically by logging onto the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) website at https://www.regulations.gov/. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
• Comments may also be faxed to (202) 493-2251.

Comments must be written in the English language, and be no greater than 15 pages in length, although there is no limit to the length of necessary attachments to the comments. If comments are submitted in hard copy form, please ensure that two copies are provided. If you wish to receive confirmation that comments you have submitted by mail were received, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard with the comments. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov,, including any personal information provided.

All comments and supporting materials received before the close of business on the closing date indicated above will be filed in the docket and will be considered. All comments and supporting materials received after the closing date will also be filed and will be considered to the fullest extent possible.

When the petition is granted or denied, notice of the decision will also be published in the Federal Register pursuant to the authority indicated at the end of this notice.

All comments, background documentation, and supporting materials submitted to the docket may be viewed by anyone at the address and times given above. The documents may also be viewed on the internet at https://www.regulations.gov by following the online instructions for accessing the dockets. The docket ID number for this petition is shown in the heading of this notice.

DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement is available for review in a Federal Register notice published on April 11, 2000, (65 FR 19477-78).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Overview: Volkswagen has determined that certain MY 2017-2019 Audi A3 motor vehicles do not comply with paragraph S5.2.1 of FMVSS No. 101, Controls and Displays (49 CFR 571.101). Volkswagen filed a noncompliance report dated February 18, 2019, and later amended it on September 13, 2019, pursuant to 49 CFR 573, Defect and Noncompliance Responsibility and Reports. Volkswagen subsequently petitioned NHTSA on February 20, 2019, for an exemption from the notification and remedy requirements of 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301 on the basis that this noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety, pursuant to 40 U.S.C. 30118 and 49 U.S.C. 30120, Exemption for Inconsequential Defect or Noncompliance.

This notice of receipt of Volkswagen's petition is published under 49 U.S.C. 30118 and 30120 and does not represent any agency decision or other exercise of judgment concerning the merits of the petition.

II. Vehicles Involved: Approximately 18,379 MY 2017-2019 Audi A3 sedan, Cabriolet, RS3, and e-Tron motor vehicles, manufactured between July 7, 2016, and January 7, 2019, are potentially involved.

III. Noncompliance: Volkswagen explains that the noncompliance is that the subject vehicles are equipped with speedometers that only display the vehicle's speed in units of either miles per-hour (mph) or kilometers-per-hour (km/h) and therefore do not meet the requirements set forth in paragraph S5.2.1 and Table 1, Column 3 of FMVSS No. 101.

IV. Rule Requirements: Paragraphs S5.2.1 and Table 1, Column 3 of FMVSS No. 101 provides that each passenger car, multipurpose passenger vehicle, truck and bus that is fitted with a control, a telltale, or an indicator listed in Table 1 or Table 2 must meet the requirements of FMVSS No. 101 for the location, identification, color, and illumination of that control, telltale or indicator.

Each control, telltale and indicator that is listed in column 1 of Table 1 or Table 2 must be identified by the symbol specified for it in column 2 or the word or abbreviation specified for it in column 3 of Table 1 or Table 2.

V. Summary of Volkswagen's Petition: The following views and arguments presented in this section, V. Summary of Volkswagen's Petition, are the views and arguments provided by Volkswagen. They have not been evaluated by the agency and do not reflect the views of the Agency.

Volkswagen described the subject noncompliance and stated that the noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety.

Volkswagen submitted the following views and arguments in support of the petition:

1. All affected Audi A3 vehicles are initially delivered for first-sale in the U.S. market in a compliant state (speed displayed in miles-per-hour). Only through driver interaction, within the settings menu, can the speedometer display be changed from mph to km/h. The change between the display settings must be done intentionally and cannot be accomplished inadvertently.

2. In the affected 2017-2019 MY Audi A3 vehicles, the two speedometer scales are noticeably different. Were the previous driver to have changed the display, a subsequent driver would be able to tell at a glance that the scale is not in mph.

3. The indicated vehicle speed in km/h is 1.6 times greater than the speed in mph. Audi purports that if the vehicle operator changes the display to indicate km/h and later has not changed the display back to mph, the vehicle operator will clearly recognize that the vehicle is moving at a lower speed than intended and adjust their vehicle speed to match road and traffic conditions. Notice of the speed differential advises the vehicle operator to perform the necessary steps to adjust the speedometer back to mph (at the next appropriate opportunity).

4. The 2017-2019 MY Audi A3 Owner Manuals contains information and instructions for changing the units displayed, via the Infotainment system, using the MMI Settings menu. Therefore, if a vehicle operator needs to change the display to indicate mph, instructions are available. As of January 08, 2019, production has been corrected, vehicles withheld at the factory have been corrected and unsold units will be corrected prior to sale.

5. Additionally, Volkswagen is not aware of any field or customer complaints related to this condition, nor has it been made aware of any accidents or injuries that have occurred as a result of this issue.

Volkswagen concluded that the subject noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety, and that its petition to be exempted from providing notification of the noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30118, and a remedy for the noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30120, should be granted.

NHTSA notes that the statutory provisions (49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and 30120(h)) that permit manufacturers to file petitions for a determination of inconsequentiality allow NHTSA to exempt manufacturers only from the duties found in sections 30118 and 30120, respectively, to notify owners, purchasers, and dealers of a defect or noncompliance and to remedy the defect or noncompliance. Therefore, any decision on this petition only applies to the subject vehicles that Volkswagen no longer controlled at the time it determined that the noncompliance existed. However, any decision on this petition does not relieve vehicle distributors and dealers of the prohibitions on the sale, offer for sale, or introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of the noncompliant vehicles under their control after Volkswagen notified them that the subject noncompliance existed.

Authority: (49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120: delegations of authority at 49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8)