Patent ID: 7822526

Claim:
A vehicle headway maintenance assist system comprising: a preceding vehicle detection section configured to detect a headway distance between a host vehicle and a preceding vehicle; an accelerator actuation amount detection section configured to detect an accelerator actuation amount of an accelerator of the host vehicle; a reaction force computing section configured to calculate a reaction force to be generated in the accelerator based on the headway distance detected by the preceding vehicle detection section; a reaction force generating section configured to generate the reaction force calculated by the reaction force computing section in the accelerator; a running condition detection section configured to detect a running condition of the host vehicle; a driving force determination section configured to determine a target driving force of the host vehicle in accordance with the accelerator actuation amount detected by the accelerator actuation amount detection section; a drive source control section configured to control an output of a drive source towards the driving force determined by the driving force determination section; and a compensation section configured to increase a driver awareness of the reaction force generated in the accelerator by changing from a first drive force/accelerator actuation relationship between the target drive force determined by the driving force determination section and the accelerator actuation amount detected by the accelerator actuation amount detection section to a second drive force/accelerator actuation relationship based on the running condition detected by the running condition detection section; wherein the change occurs at a time before the reaction force generating section generates the reaction force.