A control device for a vehicle includes: an inter-vehicle distance detector that detects a presence or an absence of a preceding vehicle, and an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle; an effectiveness ratio setting module that sets an effectiveness ratio indicating a proportion of an accelerator operation amount of a driver to be reflected in a drive control, on the basis of the inter-vehicle distance when the inter-vehicle distance is less than a predetermined standard value; and a drive controller that performs the drive control on the vehicle on the basis of the effectiveness ratio. When the preceding vehicle goes away in a state in which the effectiveness ratio is lowered, the effectiveness ratio setting module gradually increases the effectiveness ratio for a period for which an accelerator is on.

The techniques of this disclosure relate to a vehicle lateral-control system with adjustable parameters. The system includes a controller circuit that receives identity data from a driver-monitoring sensor indicating an identity of a driver of a vehicle. The controller circuit receives vehicle lateral-response data from vehicle sensors based on steering maneuvers performed as the vehicle operates under control of the driver. The controller circuit determines lateral-steering parameters of the vehicle based on the vehicle lateral-response data. The controller circuit adjusts lateral-control parameters of the vehicle based on the lateral-steering parameters. The controller circuit associates the adjusted lateral-control parameters of the vehicle with the identity of the driver. The controller circuit operates the vehicle according to the lateral-control parameters associated with the identity of the driver. The system can reproduce the driver's steering behavior while the vehicle is operated in an autonomous-driving mode.

Disclosed herein is a method and system for detecting, monitoring and/or controlling one or more of mobile services for a mobile communication device (also referred to herein as a Controllable Mobile Device or CMD), and in particular, when the device is being used and the vehicle, operated by the user of the device, is moving. In addition, one aspect of the invention generally relates to a method and system for modifying a user's driving behaviors, in particular to a system and method for modifying a user's unsafe driving behaviors, e.g., using one or more services of a controllable mobile device while driving.

A vehicle controlling apparatus includes a setting unit and an acquiring unit. The setting unit is configured to set a target inter-vehicle distance. The acquiring unit is configured to acquire position information of a temporary stopping location on a traveling route on which an own vehicle travels. The setting unit is configured to, on a condition that the own vehicle travels to follow a preceding vehicle, and that the acquiring unit has acquired the position information of the temporary stopping location, make a setting change to make the target inter-vehicle distance greater than a normal setting value when a distance from the own vehicle to the temporary stopping location reaches a predetermined distance, and make a setting change to bring the target inter-vehicle distance closer to the normal setting value in accordance with the distance until the own vehicle reaches the temporary stopping location.

A vehicle drive-assist apparatus includes a traveling environment information acquisition unit, an output setting unit, an urban-region traveling determination unit, and an output suppression control processor. The traveling environment information acquisition unit is configured to acquire traveling environment information of a vehicle. The output setting unit is configured to set output of a driving source of the vehicle on the basis of an accelerator-pedal pushing amount of the vehicle. The urban-region traveling determination unit is configured to determine whether the vehicle is traveling in an urban region, on the basis of the traveling environment information. The output suppression control processor is configured to set an output characteristic of the driving source to a suppression characteristic in a case of traveling in the urban region. The output setting unit is configured to set the output of the driving source on the basis of the set suppression characteristic.

A hybrid electric vehicle and a method of controlling the same are provided to avoid a collision thereof attributable to erroneous operation of an accelerator pedal. The method includes determining whether an accelerator pedal is erroneously operated in the situation in which an obstacle is detected to be present in the traveling path. In response to determining that the accelerator pedal is erroneously operated, the method includes switching the driving mode to a mode in which an engine is disconnected from a driving shaft and a motor generates driving force. The number of revolutions per minute (RPM) of the engine is then adjusted based on the extent to which the accelerator pedal is operated and the torque of the motor is adjusted based on a first vehicle speed and the distance to the obstacle.

A vehicle control device comprises an operation amount sensor for measuring an operation amount of an accelerator element, an object sensor for detecting an object ahead of a vehicle, and a controller for applying a normal operation drive force which is determined depending on the operation amount to the vehicle. The controller executes an adaptive cruise control for applying a drive force required for an acceleration of the vehicle to become equal to an adaptive cruise control acceleration to the vehicle. The adaptive cruise control acceleration is an acceleration which increases as a difference between an inter-vehicle distance from the vehicle to an objective-forward-vehicle and a target inter-vehicle distance increases. When an erroneous operation start condition becomes satisfied, the controller ends the adaptive cruise control, and executes an erroneous operation related control for applying a drive force which is smaller than the normal operation drive force to the vehicle.

A vehicle control device is equipped with a travel control unit which, in the case that a user-requested driving force exceeds a system-required driving force in a state in which a user is not in contact with an operating element, performs a travel control on the basis of a limited driving force obtained by applying a limit to the user-requested driving force, whereas in the case that the user-requested driving force exceeds the system-required driving force in a state in which the user is in contact with the operating element, performs the travel control on the basis of the user-requested driving force without applying the limit to the user-requested driving force.

When a collision avoidance target is a pedestrian or a bicycle, a driving assistance ECU performs automatic braking control. In this case, accelerator override cannot be performed. When the collision avoidance target is an automobile and when an accelerator operation amount is equal to or larger than a first operation amount threshold, the driving assistance ECU prohibits the automatic braking control. In this case, the accelerator override can be performed. When the accelerator operation amount is smaller than the first operation amount threshold, the driving assistance ECU performs the automatic braking control.

A travel control method includes using the vehicle to autonomously control a travel of the vehicle. The vehicle has an autonomous speed control function for autonomously controlling a traveling speed of the vehicle and an autonomous steering control function for autonomously controlling the steering of the vehicle. The autonomous speed control function includes a curved route speed control function for controlling the traveling speed of the vehicle at a set speed corresponding to the size of a curve of a travel route. The curved route speed control function can be set to ON/OFF. Each of the autonomous speed control function and the autonomous steering control function can be set to ON/OFF. When the autonomous speed control function and the autonomous steering control function are set to ON, the curved route speed control function is operated regardless of whether the curved route speed control function is set to ON or OFF.