25RQ000182 Draft SOW.pdf

Draft Statement of Work

PR# 693JJ925RQ000182

New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Testing

SECTION C

DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATION/WORK STATEMENT

C.1 BACKGROUND

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)'s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) program has published comparative safety information on new vehicle models since 1979.

Interest in vulnerable road user safety has grown in part due to the large numbers of pedestrians struck and killed. In 2022, 7,522 pedestrians were fatally injured. To mitigate injuries and fatalities, NHTSA has proposed to perform a series of crashworthiness impact tests designed to evaluate how injurious a given vehicle’s front end may be if a pedestrian is struck. These tests are modeled in large part after those already adopted in Euro NCAP testing. This contract details NHTSA’s requirements for performing its Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection NCAP tests.

C.2 ACRONYMS AND DEFINITIONS

C.2.1 Acronyms

ACOR Alternate Contracting Officer’s Representative CAP Contractor-Acquired Property COR Contracting Officer’s Representative DO Delivery Order DOT Department of Transportation FTP File Transfer Protocol GFP Government-Furnished Property NCAP New Car Assessment Program NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration QA Quality Assurance

C.2.2. Definitions

“Day”: As used in this contract, unless otherwise noted, the term refers to a calendar day.

“Week”: As used in this contract, the term refers to seven consecutive calendar days.

“Invalid Test”: As used in this contract, an “invalid test” is one that does not conform to all requirements and specifications of the NCAP test procedure.

C.3 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall provide all facilities, services, materials, supplies, and equipment (except Government-Furnished Property (GFP)) necessary to perform Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection assessments for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) vehicles.

C.4 TEST PROCEDURE (SCOPE OF WORK)

C.4.1 Kickoff Meeting

Within two (2) weeks of contract award, key members of the Contractor’s staff shall meet with the NHTSA COR, Contracting Officer (CO), and other interested NHTSA staff for the purposes of a kickoff meeting. The meeting will be held via conference call and last from one (1) to two (2) hours. During the kickoff meeting, participants will:

a. Review contractual matters, including terms and conditions of the Contract and the process for issuing Delivery Orders;

b. Review the Statement of Work and Milestones and Deliverables to ensure a common understanding of the general requirements; and

c. Address questions from any party.

C.4.2 Laboratory Test Procedures

The Contractor shall perform all applicable work in accordance with the testing requirements of the attached NCAP Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Test Procedure, listed in Section J, Lists of Exhibits, Documents, and Other Attachments. The Agency updates the test procedure periodically on an as-needed basis. The Contractor shall be required to conduct testing using any updated testing procedures in place at the time of testing. The COR will provide the Contractor with any updated or additional test procedures.

The Contractor shall perform pedestrian protection tests on production vehicles.

For any Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection NCAP test series, the COR may require additional cameras, instrumentation, and/or impactor qualification tests beyond those required in the NCAP Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Test Procedures.

C.4.3 Duty to Provide Optional NCAP Testing Services (If Requested by NHTSA)

An important component of the NCAP testing program is the “optional” NCAP testing program.1 An optional NCAP test is an NCAP test requested and paid for by the vehicle manufacturer. Due to limited funding, NCAP can only select, test, and provide consumer information on a certain number of vehicle makes and models of each year. In some instances, a vehicle manufacturer may wish to receive NCAP assessments or safety ratings for a vehicle not selected for testing by NCAP. In these cases, the vehicle manufacturer may request an optional NCAP test in writing to the Government. If the Government approves the optional NCAP test, the manufacturer will be responsible for all costs associated with testing, but the Government will dictate the Vehicle Identification Number(s) (VINs) of the vehicle(s) to be tested and will receive the test deliverables.

In order to provide unbiased and equivalent test results, the Government requires that optional NCAP

1 See 52 FR 31691 and 53 FR 3479 for more details.

testing be done at test laboratories already performing NCAP testing under contract to the Government.

Accordingly, the Contractor shall provide optional NCAP testing services to vehicle manufacturers when the Government approves a vehicle for the optional testing. In the case that an optional pedestrian protection assessment is granted to a vehicle manufacturer, the Government will notify the Contractor which vehicle make, and model was selected. The Contractor must treat an optional NCAP test as a typical NCAP test, i.e., the vehicle must be purchased/leased, prepared, scheduled, and tested in the exact same manner. The Contractor shall provide the same deliverables required under a Government-ordered NCAP test and shall only provide the deliverables to the Government. The Contractor and the vehicle manufacturer shall work out any business arrangements, such as testing and vehicle acquisition costs, separately and without the involvement of the Government. Under no circumstances should a vehicle be provided by the vehicle manufacturer to the Contractor for testing, nor should a specific VIN be requested by a vehicle manufacturer for testing. The Government will provide the test lab with the VIN of the vehicle to purchased and the test lab will procure the specified vehicle for testing.

C.5 STORAGE OF TEST VEHICLE, PARTS, COMPONENTS, AND/OR EQUIPMENT

No test items shall be destroyed or disposed of until authorized by the COR. All test vehicles, whether impact-tested or awaiting testing, and other test parts, components, or equipment, whether provided as government-furnished property (GFP) or contractor-acquired property (CAP), shall be stored and protected until receipt of disposition instructions from the COR. These provisions shall survive the termination or expiration of the contract or final delivery order until all test items remaining in the possession of the Contractor have been disposed of in accordance with instructions from the COR.

C.6 MEASUREMENT AND TEST EQUIPMENT

The Contractor shall implement and maintain a calibration system in accordance with this contract and all applicable test procedures (TPs). (Refer to Section F.5)

Before the Contractor initiates the NCAP test program, a test instrumentation calibration system shall be implemented and maintained in accordance with established calibration practices. The calibration system shall be set up and maintained as follows:

A. Standards for calibrating the measuring and test equipment will be stored and used under appropriate environmental conditions to assure their accuracy and stability.

B. All measuring instruments and standards shall be calibrated by the Contractor, or a commercial facility, against a higher order standard at period intervals NOT EXCEEDING

12 MONTHS FOR INSTRUMENTS AND 12 MONTHS FOR CALIBRATION

STANDARDS. Records showing the calibration traceability to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shall be maintained for all measuring and test equipment.

C. All measuring and test equipment and measuring standards will be labeled with the following information:

(1) Date and place of last calibration;

(2) Date of next scheduled calibration;

(3) Name of the technician or commercial business performing the calibration;

(4) Full scale measurement range; and

(5) Accuracy and tolerance over the entire measurement range or within the range used for testing.

D. A written calibration procedure shall be provided by the Contractor including, as a minimum, the following information for all measurement and test equipment:

(1) Type of equipment, manufacturer, model number, etc.;

(2) Measurement range;

(3) Accuracy;

(4) Calibration interval;

(5) Type of standard used to calibrate the equipment (calibration traceability of the standard must be evident); and

(6) The actual procedures and forms used to perform the calibrations.

E. Records of calibration for all test instrumentation shall be kept by the Contractor in a manner that assures the maintenance of established calibration schedules. All such records shall be readily available for inspection when requested by the COR. The calibration system procedures shall be accepted by the COR before the test program commences.

F. Test equipment shall receive a calibration adjustment immediately prior to a test and a calibration check after the test. This check shall be recorded by the test technician(s) and submitted with the final report.

G. At any time during the duration of the contract, NHTSA may require the Contractor to evaluate the accuracy of any of its Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) channels and provide supporting data to the COR.

C.7 TEST ACCESS

No individuals, other than Contractor personnel directly involved in the NCAP testing program, shall be allowed to witness any NCAP test unless specifically authorized by the COR.

All communications with vehicle manufacturers shall be referred to NHTSA. The Contractor shall not release test data without the prior permission of the COR.

(End of Section C)