Patent ID: 11970163
Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 3:
4. A vehicle control method comprising:
repeatedly capturing an image of a landscape in front of a vehicle by a camera;
detecting a yaw rate of said vehicle by a yaw rate sensor;
changing a steered angle of a steered wheel of said vehicle by an actuator; and
obtaining, based on said image captured by said camera, a relative position of said vehicle in a lane width direction with respect to a lane in which said vehicle is traveling and a yaw angle with respect to an extension direction of said lane;
starting, when a lane change assist start condition is established, lane change assist control to drive said actuator based on said obtained relative position and said obtained yaw angle in such a manner that said vehicle changes lanes from an original lane in which the own vehicle is traveling to a target lane which is adjacent to said original lane;
interrupting said lane change assist control and start first yaw angle return control in place of said lane change assist control, when a predetermined first interruption condition is established, said first yaw angle return control being a control to drive said actuator in such a manner that an actual yaw angle of said vehicle is returned to an initial yaw angle that is a yaw angle of when said lane change assist control is started;
calculating an estimated yaw angle change amount based on said yaw rate detected by the yaw rate sensor and a predetermined time length;
calculating a value based on said yaw angle obtained using said image captured by said camera and said calculated estimated yaw angle change amount; and
ending said first yaw angle return control when said calculated value becomes equal to said initial yaw angle.