Patent ID: 8473171

Claim:
A vehicle comprising: a set of road wheels; a plurality of sensors operable for generating an input data set, said plurality of sensors including: a first sensor configured to generate an optical scanning beam covering an immediate path of the vehicle and a boundary of a road surface, said first sensor being further configured to scan the boundary of said road surface to determine when said set of road wheels crosses said boundary and to scan the immediate path for an obstacle on the road surface; a second sensor configured to detect said obstacle and a set of range data to the obstacle; and at least one additional sensor configured to determine a set of inertial data of the vehicle; and a controller in communication with said first sensor, said second sensor, and said at least one additional sensor; wherein said controller is configured for comparing said input data set to a corresponding set of calibrated thresholds, and for automatically increasing an amount of braking force of the vehicle when the vehicle has not crossed said boundary only when both of the first and second sensors detect the obstacle, and wherein the controller is further configured for automatically increasing the amount of braking force of the vehicle when the vehicle has crossed said boundary only when the second sensor detects the obstacle without respect to whether the first sensor detects the obstacle.