Patent ID: 7610134

Claim:
A vehicle steering system comprising: a steering actuator configured to impart a steering force to a steering mechanism of a vehicle; an automatic steering controller configured to perform automatic steering control by controlling the steering actuator; a manipulation urgency detector configured to detect a degree of manipulation urgency of a vehicle brake application member which is manipulated by the driver; an automatic steering cancellation controller configured to cancel the automatic steering control by the automatic steering controller when the degree of manipulation urgency detected by the manipulation urgency detector exceeds a predetermined threshold value; a control resumption data storage configured to store control resumption data for resumption of the automatic steering control when the automatic steering control cancellation controller cancels the automatic steering control; and an automatic steering resuming unit configured to resume the automatic steering control by the automatic steering controller using the control resumption data stored in the control resumption data storage when a predetermined control resuming condition is established, wherein the automatic steering resuming unit includes means for determining the cancellation of braking after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller, means for determining a steering operation after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller, means for determining a gearshift operation by the driver after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller, and means for resuming the automatic steering control by the automatic steering controller after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller when the means for determining the cancellation of braking after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller determines that a braking application has been cancelled, the means for determining a steering operation after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller makes a determination of no steering operation, and the means for determining a gearshift operation by the driver after the automatic steering control has been cancelled by the automatic steering cancellation controller makes a determination of no gearshift operation.