Patent ID: 8290698

Claim:
A vehicle travel control apparatus comprising: an object detector which detects an object that exists in an advancing direction of a present vehicle; a yaw-rate detector which detects the yaw-rate of the present vehicle; a vehicle speed detector which detects the speed of the present vehicle; a movement path estimator which estimates the movement path of the present vehicle, based on the output of the yaw-rate detector and the output of the vehicle speed detector; a preceding vehicle assignment device which assigns the object as a preceding vehicle; a travel controller which performs a follow-travel control targeting the preceding vehicle; a still object determination device which determines whether the object detected by the object detector is a still object; and a stable-movement-state determination device which determines whether the present vehicle is, in a stable-movement-state, based on the output of the yaw-rate detector, wherein the preceding vehicle assignment device maintains the previous preceding vehicle assignment when: the present vehicle performs the follow-travel control targeting the preceding vehicle; the object detected at a position between the preceding vehicle and the present vehicle is determined to be the still object by the still object determination device; the present vehicle is determined to be in the stable-movement-state by the stable-movement-state determination device; and the stable-movement-state determination device determines that the present vehicle is in the stable-movement-state, when the absolute value of the integral value of the yaw-rate over a predetermined period is equal to or less than a predetermined value.