Patent ID: 7809488

Claim:
A headway maintenance assist system comprising: a preceding vehicle detection section configured to detect a headway distance between a host vehicle and a preceding vehicle; an accelerator actuation amount detection section configured to detect an accelerator actuation amount of an accelerator of the host vehicle; a reaction force computing section configured to calculate a reaction force to be generated in the accelerator based on the headway distance detected by the preceding vehicle detection section; a reaction force generating section configured to generate the reaction force calculated by the reaction force computing section in the accelerator; a running condition detection section configured to detect a running condition of the host vehicle; a driving force determination section configured to determine a target driving force of the host vehicle in accordance with the accelerator actuation amount detected by the accelerator actuation amount detection section; a drive source control section configured to control an output of a drive source towards the target driving force determined by the driving force determination section; an accelerator return detection section configured to detect a return operation of the accelerator of the host vehicle to decrease acceleration; and a correction section configured to change from using a first drive force/accelerator actuation relationship between the target drive force and the accelerator actuation amount to a second drive force/accelerator actuation relationship based on the running condition detected by the running condition detection section, the correction section being further configured to restore the first drive force/accelerator actuation relationship when the accelerator return detection section detects the return operation of the accelerator during travel, the target drive force in the first and second drive force/accelerator actuation relationships being set to monotonically increase with respect to the accelerator actuation amount, and the correction section being further configured to gradually correct the first drive force/accelerator actuation relationship to the second drive force/accelerator actuation relationship when the accelerator is subsequently operated to increase acceleration after the return operation of the accelerator.