In a vehicle control apparatus, a preceding vehicle ahead of an own vehicle is detected. A movement trajectory of a target preceding vehicle is acquired. Based on the movement trajectory of the target preceding vehicle, a target route on which the own vehicle is to travel is set. Travelling control of the own vehicle is performed so as to follow the target preceding vehicle on the target route. An obstacle ahead of the own vehicle is detected. The target route is changed so as to extend a separation distance between the detected obstacle and a parallel portion of the target route that is parallel to the obstacle, based on a separation distance between the obstacle and a parallel portion of the movement trajectory of the target preceding vehicle that is parallel to the obstacle.

Various systems and methods for providing a vehicle control system are described herein. A system for managing an autonomous vehicle includes a vehicle control system to determine a travel path in a road lane, the travel path being offset from a center of the road lane by an offset value and steer the autonomous vehicle to follow the travel path.

A vehicle control device (ECU) 10 is configured to, when there is an obstacle 3 in a lane 7, execute traveling course correction processing (S15) of setting a speed distribution zone 40 defining a distribution of an allowable upper limit V.sub.lim of a relative speed of the vehicle 1 with respect to the obstacle 3, and calculate a corrected target traveling course Rc by correcting a target traveling course R so as to prevent the relative speed of the vehicle 1 from exceeding the limit V.sub.lim and enable the vehicle 1 to avoid the obstacle 3. The traveling course correction processing includes restriction processing (S27) of calculating the corrected target traveling course (restricted target travel courses Rc1_r through Rc3_r) such that a lateral avoidance distance (L2_r, L3_r) thereof is restricted to be smaller when a border line of the lane 7 is not detected.

The present invention provides a travel control apparatus for controlling traveling of a self-vehicle to avoid another vehicle on a front side, the apparatus comprising: a calculation unit for calculating a relative speed between the self-vehicle and the other vehicle; a state detection unit for detecting an operation state of the other vehicle; and a control unit for controlling avoidance processing of avoiding the other vehicle and causing the self-vehicle to pass a lateral side of the other vehicle, wherein the control unit changes a separation distance to separate the self-vehicle and the other vehicle in the avoidance processing in accordance with the relative speed calculated by the calculation unit and the operation state detected by the state detection unit.

This vehicle control device is provided with: a detection unit; and an external environment recognition unit that extracts a target object and left and right recognition lines of a traveling path. Additionally, a local environment map creation unit of the vehicle control device calculates an area of activity of an own vehicle and left and right border lines which indicate a limit of non-interference with the target object. Furthermore, the local environment map creation unit calculates left and right recommended border lines during traveling of the own vehicle by adding a margin interval that narrows the left and right border lines toward the inside.

The technology relates to controlling a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode. In one instance, sensor data identifying an object in an environment of the vehicle may be received. A first path of a first trajectory where the vehicle will pass the object may be determined. A function is used to determining a first maximum speed of the vehicle based on a predetermined minimum lateral clearance between the object and the vehicle. The first maximum speed may be used to determine whether an actual lateral clearance between the object and the vehicle will meet the predetermined minimum lateral clearance. The determination of whether the actual lateral clearance will meet the predetermined minimum lateral clearance may be used to generate a first speed plan for the first trajectory. The vehicle may be controlled in the autonomous driving mode according to the first trajectory including the first speed plan and the first path.

An automotive vehicle includes at least one actuator configured to control vehicle steering, shifting, acceleration, or braking, at least one sensor configured to provide signals indicative of a location and velocity of an object external to the vehicle relative to the vehicle, and at least one controller in communication with the at least one actuator and the at least one sensor. The at least one controller is configured to, in response to a signal from the at least one sensor indicating that a relative velocity between a rearward object and the vehicle exceeds a first threshold and a distance between the rearward object and the vehicle falls below a second threshold, automatically control the at least one actuator to maneuver the vehicle from a first lateral position with respect to a current driving lane to a second lateral position with respect to the current driving lane.

A traveling control apparatus is configured to control automated driving traveling of a vehicle based on a set automated driving level. The traveling control apparatus comprises: an acquisition unit configured to acquire traveling scene information that specifies a traveling scene of the vehicle; and a control unit configured to perform offset control to offset a traveling position of the vehicle in a vehicle width direction to increase a distance to another vehicle traveling side by side with the vehicle. The control unit performs the offset control by setting one of a first mode and a second mode based on at least one of the traveling scene information and the automated driving level.

Vehicle alert and control systems and methods taking into account a detected road friction at a following vehicle and a predicted road friction by the following vehicle. The detected road friction between the following vehicle tires and the road surface may be assessed using a variety of methodologies and is used to compute a critical safety distance between the following vehicle and the preceding vehicle and a critical safety speed of the following vehicle. The predicted road friction ahead of the following vehicle may also be assessed using a variety of methodologies (lidar, camera, and cloud-based examples are provided) and is used to compute a warning safety distance between the following vehicle and the preceding vehicle and a warning safety speed of the following vehicle. These functionalities may be applied to vehicle/stationary object warning and response scenarios as well.

A method, computer program product, and computing system for operating an autonomous vehicle; monitoring the operation of a plurality of computing devices within the autonomous vehicle; and in response to detecting the failure of one or more of the plurality of computing devices, switching the autonomous vehicle from a nominal autonomous operational mode to a degraded autonomous operational mode.