The invention relates to a method for operating a vehicle with a drive device (20) which has at least one internal combustion engine (21) as a drive machine, wherein a drive torque requested by a driver of the vehicle (1) is implemented by operating at least the internal combustion engine (21) on a roadway (2), comprising the following steps: a) Monitoring the roadway (2) for road users (3) travelling ahead, by means of a surroundings sensor system (5), b) Monitoring a driver of the vehicle (1) by means of a state sensor system (8) with respect to his request to carry out an overtaking process in order to overtake a detected road user (3) travelling ahead, and if a request to carry out an overtaking process has been detected, c) Actuating the drive device (20) to prepare the overtaking process in such a way that before the overtaking process is carried out a torque reserve of the internal combustion engine (21) is built up.

In a case where automatic lane change control is performed, a traveling lane and another lane as a lane change destination are displayed on a display unit based on lane change information, and a guide indication of a lane change starting position or a lane change finishing position is displayed on the displayed traveling lane or the displayed another lane.

A vehicle operation sensing system includes an operation sensor, a fixture sensor, and a vehicle operation sensing unit. The operation sensor is an acceleration sensor fixed to an operation member, and sensing an acceleration generated in the operation member at least in a gravitational acceleration direction. The operation member has one end fixed to a vehicle and the other end a position of which is displaced in the gravitational acceleration direction when the operation member is operated. The fixture sensor is an acceleration sensor used at a position unchanging part of the vehicle, and sensing an acceleration generated in the vehicle at least in the gravitational acceleration direction. The vehicle operation sensing unit has an operation sensing part sensing an operation of the operation member by using a sensing result of the fixture sensor as an object to be compared with a sensing result of the operation sensor.

A system for lateral adaptive cruise control for use in a vehicle includes a main body, a power source, and a brake. The system further includes an input device to receive an adaptive cruise control request. The system further includes an object sensor to detect lateral object data. The system further includes an ECU designed to determine a velocity of the lateral object or a relative distance to the lateral object based on the lateral object data, determine a lane entrance event corresponding to the lateral object traveling towards a current lane occupied by the main body based on the at least one of the velocity of the lateral object or the relative distance to the lateral object, and control at least one of the power source or the brake to adjust a current speed of the main body based on the lane entrance event.

A device for controlling travel of a vehicle is provided. The device includes an information acquiring device that acquires vehicle information and vehicle surroundings information and a controller that determines a location of a traveling lane based on the vehicle information and the vehicle surroundings information. The controller then determines a control state for a lane change based on the location of the traveling lane. Thus, the device allows the lane change to be performed safely while obeying the traffic rules.

A lane change controller determines whether lane change is available or unavailable on the basis of a detection result of an obstacle by a radar and an obstacle recognizer in response to detection of a winker operation by an operation detection unit. A lane keep controller continues lane keep control if the operation detection unit detects the winker operation during the lane keep control and if the lane change controller determines that the lane change is unavailable.

A lane-change system suitable for use on an automated vehicle includes a turn-signal-actuator, an object-detector, a location-device, and a controller. The turn-signal-actuator is operable to an operation-state by an operator of a host-vehicle. The operation-state includes a left-state, a right-state, and an off-state. The object-detector is used to detect the presence of an other-vehicle proximate to the host-vehicle. The location-device is used to determine a location of the host-vehicle on a digital-map. The controller is in communication with the turn-signal-actuator, the object-detector, and the location-device. The controller determines when the operator intends to pass the other-vehicle or slow down to make a turn or exit the highway based on the operation-state of the turn-signal-actuator and the digital-map.

A driving assistance device includes a determination unit configured to, in a case where a preceding vehicle located in front of a vehicle in a stopped state starts, determine whether an object is located inside a specified area that is a predetermined area in front of the vehicle, and a driving assistance unit configured to maintain the stopped state of the vehicle in a case where an object is located inside the specified area in a case where the preceding vehicle starts.

A communication system includes a motor vehicle, a portable communication adapter separate from the motor vehicle and able to be coupled reversibly to a control device of the motor vehicle via a communication interface, and a vehicle-external coordination device. The communication adapter receives motor vehicle data describing a traffic behavior and/or a traffic environment of the motor vehicle from the control device. The communication adapter includes a transmission/reception unit and transmits the motor vehicle data to the vehicle-external coordination device via the transmission/reception unit and receives warning data generated by the vehicle-external coordination device which describes a traffic behavior and/or a traffic environment of another motor vehicle. The communication adapter initiates a traffic-coordinating measure based on the warning data.

Disclosed is a driver assistance system, which performs lane following assist control to keep a vehicle in the center of a lane by generating a required steering torque by a lane following assist system, including a controller configured to determine whether a driving situation is a situation in which steering intervention of a driver is required when the lane following assist control is performed, and adjust at least one of an attenuation amount of a required steering torque and a threshold value of a driver override determination for determining a driver override when the driving situation is the situation in which the steering intervention of the driver is required.