A drowsy driving management device includes: a processor configured to determine whether slow eye movement of a user occurs and whether there is no change in steering torque and to determine that the user drives while drowsy when the slow eye movement of the user occurs and when there is no change in the steering torque for a predetermined period of time; and a storage that stores information indicating whether the slow eye movement occurs and a result of determining whether there is no change in the steering torque.

A vehicle control method for controlling a vehicle using a vehicle control apparatus includes: a sensor configured to detect a state outside a subject vehicle; and a control device. The vehicle control method includes: executing control of recovering a travel trajectory of the subject vehicle to a target trajectory, as ordinary control, by giving a steering amount in a lateral direction with respect to a travel lane of the subject vehicle; using detection data of the sensor to determine whether or not another vehicle is traveling in an adjacent lane to the travel lane of the subject vehicle; and when determining that the other vehicle is traveling in the adjacent lane ahead of the subject vehicle, increasing a response of the steering amount to a higher response than that in the ordinary control, before the subject vehicle passes the other vehicle.

A vehicle control system is provided to maintain an SOC level of the battery during autonomous operation of the vehicle. The control system is applied to a vehicle that can be operated autonomously by controlling an engine, a motor, a steering system, a brake system etc. autonomously by a controller, and the vehicle is allowed to coast by manipulating a clutch. During autonomous operation of the vehicle, a first coasting mode in which the engine is stopped and the clutch is disengaged is selected if the SOC level is higher than a threshold level, and a second coasting mode in which the engine is activated and the clutch is disengaged is selected if the SOC level is lower than the threshold level.

A deviation avoidance apparatus of an embodiment includes a boundary detection section that detects boundaries of a travelling path on which an own vehicle travels; a deviation prediction section that predicts that the own vehicle will deviate from the travelling path based on a travelling condition of the own vehicle that travels in the travelling path defined by the boundaries detected by the boundary detection section; a deviation avoidance section that commands, when the deviation prediction section predicts that the own vehicle will deviate from the travelling path, a steering control unit to have a steering actuator drive a steering mechanism that changes a traveling direction of the own vehicle such that the own vehicle avoids deviating from the travelling path; and a notification section that notifies vehicle passengers, via a notification unit, when the steering actuator applies driving force to the steering mechanism such that the own vehicle avoids deviating from the travelling path, that deviation avoidance of the own vehicle is ongoing.

Disclosed herein are an apparatus for detecting a road surface state in motor-driven power steering (MDPS) and a method for controlling the apparatus. The apparatus may include a column torque sensor to detect column torque applied to a steering column and to output a column torque signal; a steering angle sensor to detect a steering angular velocity of a steering wheel; a vehicle speed sensor to detect a driving speed of a vehicle; and a road surface determiner to determine a road surface state based on a boost gain, which is calculated based on the driving speed and the column torque, and on a phase offset between the column torque and the steering angular velocity and to output a road surface determination signal.

A device (1) and a method for detecting manual guidance of a steering wheel by a driver, have a torque sensor (3) for measuring a steering wheel torque (T.sub.s) of the steering wheel; an angular speed sensor (4) for measuring an angular speed (.sub.c) of a steering wheel column connected to the steering wheel; and a calculation unit (5) for calculating a driver torque (T.sub.d) exerted by the driver on the steering wheel as a function of the measured steering wheel torque (T.sub.s) and the measured angular speed (.sub.c) of the steering wheel column, and for filtering the calculated driver torque (T.sub.d) to determine a steering angle component (.sub.c.sup.T) which is compared with a threshold (.sub.tol) to recognize manual guidance of the steering wheel by the driver.

An apparatus for controlling a four-wheel drive vehicle includes a tire friction circle calculator that calculates the size of a tire friction circle of each wheel on the basis of vehicle information including a tire vertical load, a resultant force calculator that calculates the magnitude of a resultant force of tire lateral and longitudinal forces for each wheel, a tire-friction-force usage rate calculator that calculates a tire-friction-force usage rate of each wheel that is the ratio of the magnitude of the resultant force to the size of the tire friction circle, and a driving-braking force adjustment controller that adjusts driving force or braking force applied to each wheel. When the tire-friction-force usage rate of any wheel exceeds a predetermined threshold of less than one, the driving-braking force adjustment controller restrains an increase in the driving force or the braking force of the wheel while increasing the driving force or the braking force of at least one of the other wheels that is selected on the basis of driving operation information indicative of the state of a driving operation by a driver.

A vehicle control system includes a first detection unit configured to detect a direction of a face or a line of sight of an occupant of a subject vehicle, an automatic driving control unit configured to execute an automatic driving control, and a switching control unit configured to switch an automatic driving mode for causing the automatic driving control unit to execute the automatic driving control to one of a plurality of automatic driving modes including a first automatic driving mode and a second automatic driving mode. The switching control unit prevents the automatic driving control executed by the automatic driving control unit on the basis of a detection result by the first detection unit.

An autonomous driving control device is capable of starting an autonomous driving control without an operation of a driver and reducing a possibility that the driver can not start manual driving. An autonomous driving control is switched to manual driving when a determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a first threshold, before a predetermined time elapses since the autonomous driving control is automatically started. An autonomous driving control is switched to a manual driving when the determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold, after the predetermined time elapses.

A vehicle control system includes: a turning device that turns a wheel of a vehicle; a steering sensor that detects a driver's steering operation; and a control device configured to execute automated turning control that controls the turning device to automatically turn the wheel, independently of the driver's steering operation. A modification desire degree represents a degree to which the driver's steering operation modifies vehicle travel caused by the automated turning control. During execution of the automated turning control, the control device calculates the modification desire degree based on a result of detection by the steering sensor. When the modification desire degree exceeds a threshold, the control device executes system suppression processing without terminating the automated turning control. In the system suppression processing, the control device weakens the automated turning control as compared to a case where the modification desire degree is equal to or lower than the threshold.