Patent ID: 6985805

Claim:
An adaptive cruise control system capable of executing at least a vehicle speed increase restriction control mode, an automatic accelerating control mode, and a following control mode, comprising: an object detector that captures a preceding vehicle positioned ahead of a host vehicle; a lane-change detector that detects the presence or absence of a driver's intention for a lane change by the host vehicle; an adaptive vehicle speed control unit executing the following control mode during which the host vehicle automatically follows the preceding vehicle, maintaining a host vehicle's distance from the preceding vehicle at a desired inter-vehicle distance when the preceding vehicle exists ahead of the host vehicle; the adaptive vehicle speed control unit executing the vehicle speed increase restriction control mode during which an increase in the host vehicle's speed is restricted until such time that a time period corresponding to either of a predetermined distance and a predetermined holding time has expired from a time when the object detector loses the preceding vehicle during the following control mode, and thereafter executing the automatic accelerating control mode during which the host vehicle's speed is automatically accelerated up to a set speed; the adaptive vehicle speed control unit comprising a preceding-vehicle candidate detection section that detects a vehicle positioned in either of left and right traffic lanes corresponding to a direction of the lane change based on the driver's intention as a candidate for a next preceding vehicle after the lane change by the host vehicle, and a vehicle speed increase restriction control releasing section that releases the vehicle speed increase restriction control mode, in presence of the driver's intention for the lane change when the object detector loses the preceding vehicle during the following control mode and the preceding-vehicle candidate detection section detects no candidate for the next preceding vehicle.