Patent ID: 7234786

Claim:
A vehicular brake control apparatus comprising: a braking force control device that controls braking force on a vehicle by pressing a friction-applying member provided in the vehicle against a friction-receiving member; a surrounding environment detector device that detects an ambient environment outside the vehicle; and a pre-charge permission determination portion that determines whether the ambient environment detected by the surrounding environment detector device meets a predetermined criterion, wherein: if it is determined by the pre-charge permission determination portion that the ambient environment detected by the surrounding environment detector device meets the predetermined criterion, the braking force control device executes a pre-charge control of reducing or eliminating an ineffective stroke between the friction-applying member and the friction-receiving member; the surrounding environment detector device includes a navigation device that stores a road map and road information regarding roads contained in the road map and detects, via the navigation device, information regarding a road that the vehicle follows as the ambient environment; the pre-charge permission determination portion determines whether driving along the road is risky on the basis of the road information and the road map stored in the navigation device; the braking force control device executes the pre-charge control if it is determined by the pre-charge permission determination portion that driving the road is risky; the surrounding environment detector device includes a vehicle speed detector device that produces an output corresponding to a vehicle speed of the vehicle; the pre-charge permission determination portion determines whether there is possibility of the vehicle overrunning a stop-requiring position or a vicinity of the stop-requiring position, or whether there is possibility of the vehicle overrunning an intersection that is not equipped with a traffic signal or a vicinity of the intersection, from a present vehicle speed on the basis of the output of the vehicle speed detector and the road information and the road map stored in the navigation device; and the braking force control device executes the pre-charge control if it is determined from the present vehicle speed by the pre-charge permission determination portion that there is possibility of the vehicle overrunning the stop-requiring position or the vicinity of the stop-requiring position, or whether there is possibility of the vehicle overrunning the intersection that is not equipped with a traffic signal or the vicinity of the intersection.