Patent ID: 8204660

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling automatic travel of a vehicle equipped with a motive power generator that generates torque to travel the vehicle and a brake pedal to be pressed by a vehicle driver to stop the vehicle, comprising: a sensor that detects information concerning travel of the vehicle on a road; and a controller configured to control an automatic travel of the vehicle based on the information concerning travel of the vehicle detected by the sensor; acquire, using the information detected by the sensor, information concerning characteristics of a surface of the road on which the vehicle is present currently, the characteristics including a friction coefficient of the surface of the road; first determine whether or not a command for shifting the vehicle from a stopped state of the vehicle to a traveling state of the vehicle is issued; automatically shift the vehicle from the stopped state of the vehicle to the traveling state of the vehicle instead of remaining in the stopped state by controlling a drive of the motive power generator based on the acquired information, when it is determined that the command for shifting the vehicle from the stopped state to the traveling state is issued; second determine whether or not, of a component of gravity applied to the vehicle, there is a force component acting in a direction opposite to a travel direction of the vehicle; and control the motive power generator to continually operate to travel the vehicle in the travel direction instead of ending travel due to manipulation of the brake pedal in the situations (i) that the brake pedal is pressed by the driver and (ii) that the brake pedal is not pressed by the driver, when it is determined that there is the force component acting in the direction opposite to the travel direction of the vehicle.