Patent ID: 9511766
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: B60W

Claim Text:
1. An inter-vehicle control apparatus mounted to an own vehicle, the inter-vehicle control apparatus comprising: a control unit that performs acceleration control of the own vehicle based on an actual inter-vehicle physical quantity and a target inter-vehicle physical quantity, where the actual inter-vehicle physical quantity is a detected value of a physical quantity corresponding to an inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and a preceding vehicle, and the target inter-vehicle physical quantity is a target value of the actual inter-vehicle physical quantity; a limiting unit that sets a limit value for a target jerk during the acceleration control; a detection unit that detects an occurrence of at least one of: (i) a first event in which the inter-vehicle distance becomes discontinuously shorter; and (ii) a second event in which a target inter-vehicle distance corresponding to the target inter-vehicle physical quantity becomes discontinuously longer; and a determining unit that determines a risk of collision with the preceding vehicle felt by the driver of the own vehicle, based on an operation state of the preceding vehicle in relation to the own vehicle, when the detection unit detects the at least one of the first event and the second event, the limiting unit setting the limit value for the target jerk to a value based on the risk of collision determined by the determining unit such that a change in deceleration of the own vehicle is kept lower as the determined risk of collision decreases.