Patent ID: 7835839

Claim:
A drive-permission apparatus comprising: a rotary actuator having an output shaft for outputting a rotational torque in order to actuate a shift range switching mechanism by use of an electric motor generating a rotational output when energized, the shift range switching mechanism directly or indirectly switching an actual shift range of an automatic transmission which shifts an output rotation outputted from an engine; angle detecting means for detecting a rotational angle of a rotor of the electric motor or a rotational angle of the output shaft of the rotary actuator; motor control means for controlling the operation of the electric motor to drive the shift range switching mechanism so as to change the actual shift range on the basis of the rotational angle detected by the angle detecting means; memory means for storing a first rotational angle which is detected by the angle detecting means when the rotary actuator is OFF; drive inhibiting means for inhibiting a start of operation of the engine when a command for the start of operation is given to the engine and when the difference between a second rotational angle detected by the angle detecting means and the first rotational angle stored in the memory means does not satisfy a predetermined condition; and drive inhibition canceling means for canceling the inhibition of operation of the engine inhibited by the drive inhibiting means, wherein while the drive inhibiting means inhibits the start of operation of the engine, the actual shift range of the shift range switching mechanism is brought to a vehicle non-start shift range, a recognized shift range which the motor control means recognizes is brought to the vehicle non-start shift range, and when the actual shift range and the recognized shift range are coincident with each other, the drive inhibition canceling means cancels the inhibition of operation of the engine.