In one aspect, a system for regulating the operating distance defined between work vehicles during the performance of field operations may include a sensor configured to emit an output signal for reflection off of a component of a first work vehicle or a second work vehicle and detect the reflected output signal as a return signal. A controller of the system may be configured to monitor an operating distance between the first and second work vehicles within the field based on data received from the sensor associated with at least one of the output signal or the return signal. Additionally, the controller may be configured to initiate a control action associated with adjusting a relative positioning between the first and second work vehicles within the field when it is determined that the monitored operating distance has fallen outside the predetermined operating distance range.

A cruise control device has a white line recognition unit recognizing a white line defining a lane having the own vehicle, based on an image captured by an image capturing device and a lane entering and leaving determination unit carrying out lane entering determination and lane leaving determination of the own vehicle with respect to a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle based on the relative position of the own vehicle in the vehicle width direction with respect to the white line. In the lane entering determination and lane leaving determination, a preceding vehicle on the lane to which the own vehicle is moving is determined to be an entering lane vehicle whose lane the own vehicle is entering, and a preceding vehicle on the lane from which the own vehicle is moving is determined to be a leaving lane vehicle whose lane the own vehicle is leaving.

This vehicle control device includes: a distance measurement unit that measures the distance between a vehicle and a preceding vehicle; and an engine control unit that starts up an engine when, in comparison to a distance measured by the distance measurement unit once a host vehicle has stopped and an engine mounted in the host vehicle has stopped, a distance newly measured by the distance measurement unit increases by at least an offset amount that indicates the amount of increase in distance used to determine whether to start up the engine.

A vehicle external environment recognition apparatus to be applied to a vehicle includes a position calculation processor, a three-dimensional object determination processor, an identification object identifying processor, and a vehicle tracking processor. The position calculation processor calculates three-dimensional positions of respective blocks in a captured image. The three-dimensional object determination processor groups the blocks to put any two or more of the blocks that have the three-dimensional positions differing from each other within a predetermined range in a group and thereby determines three-dimensional objects. The identification object identifying processor identifies a preceding vehicle relative to the vehicle and a sidewall on the basis of the three-dimensional objects. The vehicle tracking processor estimates a future position of the preceding vehicle to track the preceding vehicle. The vehicle tracking processor determines whether or not the preceding vehicle identified by the identification object identifying processor corresponds to a portion of the sidewall.

A following cruise control method is provided for controlling a control vehicle to follow a target vehicle, the following cruise control method including: determining one of a plurality of vehicles cruising in a group as the target vehicle based on preset priorities of the plurality of vehicles; receiving following-target information comprising at least one of driving information, position information, and state information from the target vehicle; controlling follow-cruising of the control vehicle to follow the target vehicle with a preset following distance from the target vehicle by generating a driving command based on the following-target information; determining whether the target vehicle is abnormal based on the following-target information; and in response to the target vehicle being determined to be abnormal, stopping the follow-cruising of the control vehicle.

A driving assistance device acquires data on a traveling situation, a travel speed, an inter-vehicle distance, an acceleration control, a braking control, and a steering control related to a nearby vehicle having a communication function. The driving assistance device detects a nearby vehicle having no communication function. The driving assistance device detects a traveling situation of the nearby vehicle having no communication function. The driving assistance device predicts a traveling state of the nearby vehicle having the communication function based on traveling situation data acquired by the vehicle data acquisition unit, and predicts a traveling state of the nearby vehicle having no communication function based on traveling situation data acquired by the traveling situation detector.

A vehicle control apparatus capable of executing control to cause a vehicle to automatically follow a preceding vehicle, includes a determination unit configured to determine, based on internal information of the vehicle, whether to request an increase of a cruising speed of the preceding vehicle during automatic following to the preceding vehicle, and a request transmission unit configured to transmit an increase request for requesting to increase the cruising speed of the preceding vehicle in a case in which the determination unit determines to request the increase of the cruising speed.

A driving support apparatus is provided with: a recognizer configured to obtain information indicating a surrounding environment of a host vehicle, and configured to recognize a deceleration required target, which is a target that requires deceleration of the host vehicle; and a supporter configured to perform a driving support operation for supporting the deceleration of the host vehicle, on condition that the deceleration required target is recognized by the recognizer. If a recognition situation, which is recognized by said recognizer, of the deceleration required target that causes the driving support operation to be performed becomes uncertain while performing the driving support operation, said supporter is configured to maintain a preceding operating state of the driving support operation, which is an operating state immediately before the recognition situation becomes uncertain

A vehicle control device mounted on the own vehicle and configured to control the own vehicle according to the position of another vehicle ahead of the own vehicle. The vehicle control device comprises an estimated course calculation means calculating an estimated course of the own vehicle; a setting means setting a parameter indicating whether the other vehicle is in the path of the own vehicle based on the relative position of the other vehicle with respect to the own vehicle in a lateral direction orthogonal to the estimated course of the own vehicle; a determination means determining whether the other vehicle is a leading vehicle in the path of the own vehicle based on the parameter; and a changing means changing the likelihood of being determined as the leading vehicle when the estimated course is a curve, based on the estimated course and the position of the other vehicle.

A system comprises a computer having a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to monitor conditions of a roadway as a vehicle travels the roadway while an adaptive cruise control feature of the vehicle is active, identify an expected condition change based on the monitoring the conditions of the roadway, determine a preferred power state for an engine of the vehicle based on the expected condition change, determine that an engine power state transition is planned for the engine, the engine power state transition including transitioning the engine from a current power state to a planned power state, and resolve the engine power state transition based on the preferred power state.