Patent ID: 8396642

Claim:
A headway regulated cruise control system for a motor vehicle having a braking system including a service brake, the system comprising an electronic controller is suitably programmed to detect driving data of the motor vehicle and distance data with respect to a preceding vehicle, calculate a motion prediction from the driving data and the distance data, influence the state of motion of the motor vehicle by influencing one of driving and braking system devices, output a warning signal to a driver of the motor vehicle when the motion prediction indicates that, with a predetermined limiting retardation, with the headway regulated cruise controller activated and without driver intervention, a probability of collision with the preceding vehicle that exceeds a predetermined collision probability threshold value, detect braking parameters for calculating a maximum braking retardation that can be achieved with the service brakes, and reduce the limiting retardation when the maximum braking retardation is below a predetermined retardation threshold value.