Patent ID: 8214117

Claim:
A driving force controlling apparatus of a vehicle, comprising: a driving force controller configured to determine a road surface state of a road surface along which the vehicle including an engine and a transmission travels and configured to control a driving force of the vehicle based on the determined road surface state; a rear-wheel speed sensor configured to detect a rear-wheel speed; a low-friction-coefficient road surface determining device configured to determine whether the road surface is a low-friction-coefficient road surface using at least the rear-wheel speed detected by the rear-wheel speed sensor when a predetermined condition is established; and a determination prohibition device configured to prohibit the low-friction-coefficient road surface determining device from determining whether the road surface is a low-friction-coefficient road surface, if (a) the rear-wheel speed sensor is abnormal, or if (b) a predetermined time has elapsed from when a shift range is changed from a reverse range to a drive range and/or (c) a gear position has become greater than or equal to a predetermined gear position.