Patent ID: 8527177

Claim:
A vehicle control system that provides an estimation of an instantaneous speed relative to a ground surface of a vehicle having at least two wheels, each wheel equipped with a wheel sensor for supplying a measurement that is a function of a rotation of the wheel at a given instant, the system comprising: (a) for each wheel, a wheel speed indicator for supplying at an instant an indication that is a function of a circumferential wheel speed for the wheel from a measurement of a corresponding wheel sensor of the wheel; (b) a vehicle speed indicator for producing a vehicle ground speed estimation at that instant as a function of indications obtained from the wheel speed indicators upon completion of a diagnostic test on a condition of the wheels; and (c) a processor programmed to include a validation unit that performs a first test of a road grip condition of each wheel regardless of a state of the ground surface on which the wheel is rolling, based on slip information of the vehicle, wherein the vehicle speed indicator operates based on information obtained from the validation unit of the processor to produce an instantaneous vehicle speed estimation from an indication of a circumferential wheel speed of at least one wheel whose road grip condition has been ascertained by the first test performed by the validation unit.