Patent ID: 8589061

Claim:
A method for operating a forward collision risk reduction system of a vehicle comprising: operating a sensor to detect a foreign object; operating an electronic control unit to determine, based at least in part upon signals received from the sensor, a type of the foreign object and at least one of a velocity and an acceleration of the foreign object; establishing a safety zone to be avoided by the vehicle defined relative to and extending from the foreign object and having a width measured relative to the foreign object and approximately perpendicular to a direction of movement of the vehicle, the width set to a first value based on the type of the foreign object; determining a traffic behavior of the foreign object based on the at least one of the velocity and the acceleration; determining if the traffic behavior corresponds to a species of a predetermined group of traffic behaviors; and if the traffic behavior corresponds to a species of a predetermined group of traffic behaviors, modifying the width of the safety zone to a second value in accordance with a predetermined species function corresponding to the species.