Patent ID: 8340869

Claim:
A riding type vehicle comprising: a vehicle main body; a backrest supported above the vehicle main body and supporting a back of a rider; a seat portion disposed above the vehicle main body and below the backrest, and supporting a gluteal region of the rider; a plurality of drive wheels rotatably supported at a lower portion of the vehicle main body; a driving unit disposed at the lower portion of the vehicle main body, that drives the plurality of drive wheels to allow the vehicle main body to make a forward motion, a backward motion, or a turn; a posture sensor for the backrest disposed in a portion of the backrest with which left and right shoulder blades of the rider come into contact; a contact-position-dependent type operational intention determining unit that determines whether there is an operational intention of the rider, by the posture sensor detecting a change in a posture of the rider; a left-right amount-of-change comparison type turn intention determining unit that determines, only when the operational intention determining unit determines that there is an operational intention of the rider, whether a difference between pressure values of portions with which the left and right shoulder blades of the rider come into contact exceeds a seating confirmation threshold value, and determines that there is a left or right turn intention of the rider when it is determined that the difference between the pressure values exceeds the seating confirmation threshold value, the pressure values being outputted from the posture sensor for the backrest; and a drive control unit that performs drive control of the driving unit according to the left or right turn intention of the rider determined by the turn intention determining unit.