Patent ID: 6941216

Claim:
A cruise control apparatus installed on a host vehicle, including: acceleration means and deceleration means respectively operable for accelerating and decelerating said host vehicle; object recognition means including radar means for performing scanning of a region external to said host vehicle by sweeping emitted electromagnetic waves through a fixed angular range and for detecting resultant reflected waves, said object recognition means further including means for calculating at least the relative position and relative speed of a detected obstacle with respect to said host vehicle based on detection results obtained from said radar means, preceding vehicle selection means for selecting a vehicle that is a preceding vehicle with respect to said host vehicle, based on detection results obtained from said object recognition means; and cruise control means for acting on said acceleration means and deceleration means to effect control of an inter-vehicle distance such that said host vehicle follows a preceding vehicle, when said preceding vehicle has been selected by said preceding vehicle selection means, and to effect control for maintaining a fixed speed of said host vehicle in accordance with a set value of speed, when no preceding vehicle has been selected by said preceding vehicle selection means; wherein said cruise control means comprises: adjustment means responsive to execution of a predetermined deceleration command action by a driver of said host vehicle for performing at least one of a group of adjustment operations, when said host vehicle is in a condition in which no vehicle is currently selected as a preceding vehicle by said preceding vehicle selection means and said cruise control means is applying control to cause said host vehicle to run at a fixed speed, said group of adjustment operations including an operation of acting on said object recognition means to render the detection of an external object easier and an operation of acting on said preceding vehicle selection means to render the selection of a preceding vehicle easier.