Patent ID: 7987038

Claim:
A cruise control for a controlled vehicle that is following a preceding vehicle, the controlled vehicle including a preceding vehicle detector that detects an inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle and a curve detector that detects curve information of a curve ahead of the controlled vehicle, the cruise control comprising: a first speed instruction value computing part embedded in a microcomputer and configured to compute a first speed instruction value based on the inter-vehicle distance, the first speed instruction value corresponding to one of a speed or acceleration for regulating the inter-vehicle distance; a second speed instruction value computing part embedded in the microcomputer and configured to compute a second speed instruction value for traveling on the curve based on the curve information, the second speed instruction value corresponding to one of a speed or acceleration for travelling along the curve; a target speed setting part embedded in the microcomputer and configured to set a final target speed higher than the second speed instruction value and lower than the first speed instruction value when the controlled vehicle travels on the curve and while the first speed instruction value is larger than the second speed instruction value; and a speed control part embedded in the microcomputer and configured to control a speed of the controlled vehicle based on the final target speed.