Patent ID: 8521416

Claim:
A vehicle control apparatus comprising: a lane boundary line recognizing section configured to recognize a lane boundary line of a lane in which a vehicle is traveling; a present vehicle position recognizing section configured to recognize a present position of a predetermined reference point of the vehicle, wherein the reference point is located within or close to the vehicle; a predicted vehicle position calculating section configured to calculate a predicted position of the reference point, wherein the predicted position is a predetermined interval ahead of the present position; an imaginary lane boundary line calculating section configured to calculate an imaginary lane boundary line, wherein the imaginary lane boundary line is substantially tangent to the lane boundary line at a point close to the predicted position; a lane deviation prevention control section configured to perform a lane deviation prevention control of preventing the vehicle from deviating from the lane by controlling the vehicle depending on positional relationship between the vehicle and the lane boundary line; and an operation permitting section configured to selectively permit and suppress the lane deviation prevention control depending on positional relationship among the imaginary lane boundary line, the present position, and the predicted position.