Patent ID: 8121772

Claim:
A headway distance maintenance supporting system for a given vehicle, comprising: a running controller configured to perform constant headway distance control for following a preceding vehicle when the preceding vehicle is present, wherein the running controller comprises a deceleration controller configured to perform deceleration support control that supports deceleration of said given vehicle corresponding to a headway distance from said preceding vehicle; a running environment detector configured to detect a running environment of said given vehicle; an operation detector configured to detect an operation performed by a driver for adapting to the running environment of said given vehicle; and a system controller configured to detect a transitional state of the given vehicle based on the running environment of the given vehicle or the operation performed by the driver, wherein the system controller is further configured to control said running controller and said deceleration controller such that, when the system controller detects that the transitional state of said given vehicle is a prescribed transitional state, the constant headway distance control is released even when the constant headway distance control is being performed by said running controller, and the deceleration support control is performed, and wherein said system controller is configured such that the deceleration support control by the deceleration controller is not released while the constant headway distance control is released when said operation detector detects that the driver has instructed release of said constant headway distance control.