Patent ID: 8180542

Claim:
A vehicle speed control system comprising: means for detecting a current vehicle position; means for detecting a deceleration point on a road existing ahead of a vehicle; means for detecting a current vehicle speed “v”; means for calculating a target vehicle speed “v t ” which is to be realized when the vehicle reaches the deceleration point; means for calculating a deceleration amount “G ref ”, with which the current vehicle speed “v” will be decreased to the target vehicle speed “v t ”, based on a distance “d” from the current vehicle position to the deceleration point and the current vehicle speed “v”; means for starting an automatic decelerating operation for the vehicle with a predetermined deceleration torque amount “τ max ”, when the calculated deceleration amount “G ref ” becomes larger than a predetermined decelerating physical amount “G max ”; means for terminating the automatic decelerating operation with the predetermined deceleration torque amount “τ max ”, when braking torque amount “τ d ” required by braking operation of a vehicle driver becomes larger than the predetermined deceleration torque amount “τ max ”; means for calculating deceleration control torque amount “τ ref , τ′ ref ” which corresponds to the deceleration amount “G ref ”; and means for starting an automatic decelerating operation with the deceleration control torque amount “τ ref , τ′ ref ”, which is smaller than the predetermined deceleration torque amount “τ max ”, when the braking torque amount “τ d ” becomes lower than the deceleration control torque amount“τ ref , τ′ ref ”.