Patent ID: 8280593

Claim:
A vehicle door opening angle control system comprising: a laser sensor mounted on a vehicle door near a pivot axis of the vehicle door to project a laser light to scan a plane oriented in an opening direction of the vehicle door and receive a reflected light reflected by an obstacle; a check section that checks whether the obstacle, which the vehicle door is likely to touch, is present in the door opening direction based on the projection and reception of the laser light by the laser sensor; and an opening angle limit section that limits an opening angle of the vehicle door when the check section determines that the obstacle is present; wherein the check section determines that the obstacle is present when the laser sensor receives no laser light in excess of a predetermined intensity in response to projection of the laser light in a downward direction relative to a mounting position of the laser sensor; the laser sensor projects the laser light of an intensity so that the reflected laser light reflected directly by a ground exceeds a threshold value provided for checking reception of the reflected laser light and the reflected laser light reflected indirectly by the ground by way of the obstacle does not exceed the threshold value; and the laser sensor projects the laser light of the intensity, which is predetermined to a fixed value.