Systems and methods are provided for applying an adaptive drive mode to a vehicle, including: the vehicle detecting selection of a drive mode and setting vehicle systems to correspond to the selected drive mode to place the vehicle in the selected drive mode; an adaptive drive mode circuit using vehicle sensor data to determine whether the vehicle is in a low-range mode of operation; and modifying the vehicle system settings that correspond to the selected drive mode if the vehicle is in low-range mode to adapt the vehicle system settings that correspond to the selected drive mode for the low-range mode of operation.

Methods and systems are provided for providing assistive action to a driver of a vehicle to increase a following distance between the vehicle and a target lead vehicle. In one example, providing assistive action includes, operating the vehicle manually behind a target lead vehicle on a road, including estimating a following distance between the vehicle and the target lead vehicle, and responsive to the following distance being less than a first threshold following distance, providing an assistive action by adjusting a mapping from a driver demand to a wheel torque of the vehicle to increase a perceived resistance of the vehicle to the driver demand as the following distance decreases.

A sudden acceleration prevention method for a vehicle includes the following steps, which may be performed by a controller: monitoring an output signal of an accelerator pedal sensor so as to obtain a detected operation state of an accelerator pedal, determining whether the detected operation state of the accelerator pedal is within a predetermined brake pedal operation range, determining whether the detected operation state of the accelerator pedal is within a predetermined accelerator pedal and brake pedal overlapping operation range if the detected operation state of the accelerator pedal is within the predetermined brake pedal operation range, and outputting an output reduction control signal of the vehicle if the detected operation state of the accelerator pedal is not within the accelerator pedal and brake pedal overlapping operation range.

A driving support apparatus according the embodiment includes: a determination unit that determines driving support control having a driving support resource amount that is capable of assuring required resources with respect to a resource amount that is capable of being assured by a level of a vehicle driver's concentration on driving, the required resources being assumed to be required for safe driving; and a driving support unit that changes the driving support control to be performed to driving support control that is determined by the determination unit to be capable of assuring the required resources.

A method for operating a motor vehicle by detecting a destination input by a motor vehicle occupant; and determining which residual range of the motor vehicle will be indicated at the destination. If the determined residual range is less than a predetermined threshold value, the motor vehicle is operated in a consumption optimizing mode during which the motor vehicle is operated to carry out automatic measures for reducing the consumption of the motor vehicle until reaching the destination.

A control apparatus of a vehicle includes a selection unit configured to select one of a plurality of travel states which have different automation rates from each other, a storage unit configured to store an upper limit travel speed of each of the plurality of travel states, and a changing unit configured to change, based on at least one of an operation by a driver and/or information of the driver, an upper limit travel speed of a travel state which is currently selected by the selection unit. The changing unit changes, in accordance with the change in the upper limit travel speed of the travel state which is currently selected, an upper limit travel speed of a travel state which is not currently selected among the plurality of travel states.

An information processing apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive a data set including a requested acceleration as information representing movement of a vehicle in a front-rear direction and any one of a steering angle, a yaw rate, and a rotation radius as information representing movement of the vehicle in a lateral direction from each of a plurality of applications, an arbitration unit configured to perform arbitration of information representing the movement of the vehicle in the front-rear direction and arbitration of information representing the movement of the vehicle in the lateral direction based on a plurality of the data sets received by the receiver, and a first output unit configured to output instruction information for driving an actuator based on an arbitration result of the arbitration unit.

A driving supporting apparatus comprises an acceleration operation element operated by a driver; and a control unit capable of performing an acceleration limiting control to control the vehicle in such a manner that an acceleration of the vehicle does not exceed a predetermined limiting acceleration. The control unit sets a distance threshold to a value varying depending on a kind of a front target object that is present in front of the vehicle, and performs the acceleration limiting control when a distance condition and an erroneous operation condition are satisfied. The distance condition is a condition that is to be satisfied when a distance between the vehicle and the front target object is equal to or shorter than the distance threshold. The erroneous operation condition is a condition that is to be satisfied when the driver is erroneously operating the acceleration operation element.

A system and method are provided for operating an autonomous or semi-autonomous host vehicle. The method includes receiving data measured from a plurality of sensors, wherein the measured data relates to one or more target vehicles in the host vehicle's field of view, calculating a desired speed command based on a driver-selected set-speed and the measured data, detecting initiation of a host vehicle lane change to a desired adjacent lane, and in response to initiation of the lane change, selecting an acceleration profile based on at least one set of operating conditions, calculating a modified speed command by adjusting the desired speed command according to the selected acceleration profile; and controlling a host vehicle speed based on the modified speed command.

A system and method of utilizing a power boost feature is disclosed. The power boost feature enables the vehicle to produce a greater amount of power when needed, for example, to provide launch assist or overtake assist in a vehicle. A power boost request processor may receive information from a plurality of information systems of the vehicle, including, for example, vehicle mass, enablement of an accelerator pedal kick down switch, an amount of time passed between power boost system functions as communicated by a timer, operation and/or status of a cooling system, system enablement, transmission enablement, vehicle speed, position of an accelerator pedal, grade of the road as communicated by a road-grade sensor, actual vehicle power, actual available vehicle power, available battery power, look ahead information, powertrain health, route information, existence of emission zones, weather, and advanced driver-assistance systems.