Patent ID: 8744742

Claim:
A running control device comprising: a lateral object detecting unit that detects a lateral object which exists on a side of a vehicle travelling in a traffic lane; a side vehicle detecting unit that detects a side vehicle travelling in an adjacent lane adjacent to the traffic lane; a later-arriving position estimating unit that estimates a later-arriving lateral position at which the vehicle arrives after a lapse of a predetermined time, with respect to the traffic lane; a running controlling unit that suppresses a lateral movement of the vehicle in a direction to a side of the lateral object when judging that the later-arriving lateral position estimated by the later-arriving position estimating unit reaches a position of the lateral object side with respect to a predetermined lateral position under a condition in which the lateral object detecting unit detects the lateral object; an avoidance movement detecting unit that detects that the vehicle laterally moves in a direction opposite to the side of the lateral object; and a restricting unit configured to: (1) restrict the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling unit after the avoidance movement detecting unit detects the lateral movement of the vehicle when it is judged that the vehicle is not changing to the adjacent lane in which the side vehicle is detected regardless of a distance between the vehicle and the side vehicle that is traveling in the adjacent lane; and (2) allow the suppression of the lateral movement executed by the running controlling unit after the avoidance movement detecting unit detects the lateral movement of the vehicle when it is judged that the vehicle is changing to the adjacent lane in which the side vehicle is detected.