Patent ID: 7493204

Claim:
A method for detecting the possibility of rollover of a vehicle, comprising: detecting an actual roll angular velocity of the vehicle; obtaining an actual roll angle of the vehicle; determining an actual lateral acceleration of the vehicle; providing a two-dimensional map correlating values of the roll angular velocity with values of the roll angle to define a rollover judgment threshold; calculating a threshold change factor by dividing the actual roll angle by the actual lateral acceleration; changing the rollover judgment threshold by the threshold change factor; forming a plot of the actual roll angular velocity versus the actual roll angle on the two-dimensional map; and judging that there is a possibility that the vehicle rolls over when the plot exceeds the rollover judgment threshold, wherein said changing includes bringing the rollover judgment threshold closer to an origin of the two-dimensional map when the threshold change factor is larger than a reference value and bringing the rollover judgment threshold farther from the origin of the two-dimensional map when the threshold change factor is smaller than the reference value.