Patent ID: 7831367

Claim:
A system for evaluating the traffic environment of a driver's motor vehicle and for influencing the speed of the driver's motor vehicle relative to other motor vehicles in the traffic environment, the system comprising: a desired speed signal transmitter that is configured to generate a signal that is characteristic of a desired speed of the driver's motor vehicle; an actual speed signal transmitter that is configured to generate a signal that is characteristic of an actual speed of the driver's motor vehicle; a yaw rate signal transmitter that is configured to generate a signal that is characteristic of a yaw rate of the driver's motor vehicle; an object signal transmitter that is configured to generate a signal that is characteristic of a distance and a bearing angle, relative to the driver's motor vehicle, of the other motor vehicles; an electronic control unit (ECU) that is configured to generate an output signal in response to the desired speed signal, the actual speed signal, the yaw rate signal, and the object signal; and a control device that is configured to influence the actual speed of the driver's motor vehicle in response to the output signal, wherein the ECU is configured to: store a list of the other motor vehicles in response to at least the object signal; store and update at least one background noise amplitude for at least one bearing angle of at least one of the other motor vehicles in response to at least the object signal; select one of the other motor vehicles as a target motor vehicle and exclude at least one of the other motor vehicles from selection as the target motor vehicle in response to at least the background noise amplitude; and generate the output signal in response to at least the desired speed signal, the actual speed signal, and the object signal for the selected one of the other motor vehicles.