Patent ID: 7035726

Claim:
A steering characteristic control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a braking mechanism capable of braking left and right wheels of said vehicle separately from each other; steering characteristic determination means for estimating a steering characteristic of said vehicle upon turning of said vehicle; steering characteristic control means for starting, when it is determined by said steering characteristic determination means that the steering characteristic of said vehicle exhibits an excessive oversteer or understeer state exceeding a control start criterion, steering characteristic control of controlling said braking mechanism so as to apply braking force to one of said left and right wheels to adjust the steering characteristic to the neutral steering side and ending the steering characteristic control when it is determined by said steering characteristic determination means during the steering characteristic control that the steering characteristic of said vehicle is stabilized within a control end criterion on the neutral steering side with respect to the control start criterion; road surface μ determination means for determining a road surface μ state of a road surface of the road on which said vehicle travels; and turning determination means for determining whether turning of said vehicle is steady turning or non-steady turning represented by a lane change; a low μ road control end criterion for being used when it is determined by said turning determination means that the turning of said vehicle is the steady turning and said road surface μ estimation means estimates that the road surface is a low μ road, a high μ road control end criterion for being used when it is determined by said turning determination means that the turning of said vehicle is the steady turning and said road surface μ estimation means estimates that the road surface is a high μ road and a non-steady turning control end criterion for being used when it is determined by said turning determination means that the turning of said vehicle is the non-steady turning being provided as the control end criterion; the low μ road control end criterion, high μ road control end criterion and non-steady turning control end criterion having values relating to the vehicle behavior stability; the low μ road control end criterion being set to a value higher in the vehicle behavior stability than that of the high μ road control end criterion; the non-steady turning control end criterion being set to a value lower in the vehicle behavior stability than that of the low μ road control end criterion but higher in the vehicle behavior stability than that of the high μ road control end criterion.