A driving support ECU performs an inter-vehicle-distance control and a following-travel steering control. When an inter-vehicle-distance target vehicle and a following-travel steering target vehicle are the same specific other vehicle as each other, and there is a potential cutting-in vehicle between an own vehicle and the specific other vehicle, the driving support ECU newly specifies the potential cutting-in vehicle as the inter-vehicle-distance target vehicle at a first time point in a cutting-in period and newly specifies the potential cutting-in vehicle as the following-travel steering target vehicle at a second time point in the cutting-in period.

When employing an adaptive cruise-with-braking (ACB) system to control host vehicle braking reaction distance, a plurality of trigger conditions (e.g., environmental parameters) are monitored. If one or more of the monitored parameters exceeds a predefined threshold, a trigger event is detected, and at least one of a braking reaction distance (BRD) and a following distance limit shape (FDLS) are adjusted. The BRD and FDLS adjustments may be predefined according to the type and/or magnitude of the trigger event. Trigger events may be weighted or prioritized such that higher priority trigger event types correspond to larger BRD reductions, etc. Monitored trigger conditions may include adverse weather, dangerous road terrain or topography, high traffic density, erratic forward vehicle behavior, and the like.

A vehicle control apparatus includes a branched lane determination section for determining whether an own vehicle lane in which an own vehicle is travelling is a branched lane, a reference line selection section for selecting as a reference line a lane marking on a side opposite to a side on which a branch lane branches from the own vehicle lane, a vehicle control unit for controlling the own vehicle to travel following an object preceding vehicle as a following control object, and a propriety determination section for excluding the object preceding vehicle from being the following control object if the own vehicle lane is determined to be a branched lane and a state quantity based on an offset distance between a movement track of the object preceding vehicle and the reference line exceeds a predetermined threshold.