Patent ID: 8170770

Claim:
A vehicle speed control device, including: an electronic control unit (ECU); a forward vehicle sensor, electrically communicating with the ECU, which generates a forward vehicle signal as a function of whether a forward vehicle is detected, the forward vehicle signal indicating a speed and a distance to the forward vehicle; a speed sensor, electrically communicating with the ECU, which senses a driven vehicle speed; and control logic, electrically communicating with the ECU and the forward vehicle sensor, controlling the driven vehicle speed as a function of a driven vehicle acceleration and the forward vehicle signal, the control logic setting a fault status as a function of the driven vehicle acceleration and the forward vehicle signal, wherein if a negative acceleration request from the control logic exceeds a predetermined negative acceleration threshold in the ECU, the control logic causes the ECU to apply vehicle brakes for decelerating the driven vehicle and wherein if the negative acceleration request does not exceed the predetermined negative acceleration threshold, the vehicle brakes are applied if an absolute value of a sum of an actual driven vehicle acceleration and an absolute value of the negative acceleration request is greater than or equal to an absolute value of a sum of the predetermined negative acceleration threshold and an offset brake application threshold.