Patent ID: 8504243
Filing Date: 2013-08-06
Classification: B62D

Abstract:
1. A vehicular steering apparatus that includes a steering wheel which is operated by a driver, a front wheel steering mechanism which steers a front wheel in response to an operation of the steering wheel, and a rear wheel steering mechanism which steers a rear wheel in connection with the steering of the front wheel, the vehicular steering apparatus comprising: a vehicle speed detecting portion that detects a speed of a vehicle; an operating force detecting portion that detects operating force applied to the steering wheel; a displacement amount detecting portion that detects an amount of displacement of the steering wheel; a straight-line travel determining portion that determines that the vehicle is traveling in a straight line when a state in which i) the operating force detected by the operating force detecting portion is equal to or less than a predetermined operating force that is set in advance and ii) an amount of change in the amount of displacement detected by the displacement amount detecting portion is equal to or less than a predetermined amount of change that is set in advance, continues for a predetermined period of time that is set in advance or longer, when the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detecting portion is equal to or greater than a predetermined vehicle speed that is set in advance; an operating position determining portion that determines whether the operating position of the steering wheel that corresponds to the amount of displacement of the steering wheel detected by the displacement amount detecting portion is different than a neutral position of the steering wheel for aligning the direction in which the vehicle is traveling with the front-rear axial direction of a vehicle body such that the vehicle will travel in a straight line, when it is determined by the straight-line travel determining portion that the vehicle is traveling in a straight line; and an operating position correcting portion that corrects the operating position of the steering wheel to the neutral position when it is determined by the operating position determining portion that the operating position of the steering wheel is different than the neutral position.