Patent ID: 7386386

Claim:
A driving control apparatus comprising: a vehicle speed sensor that detects a traveling speed of a vehicle; an object detecting device that is installed in the vehicle and is capable of detecting objects that are present in a direction in which the vehicle travels; a preceding vehicle determining device that determines a preceding vehicle which the vehicle is to follow among the detected objects; a target inter-vehicle distance determination device that determines a target inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle; a target vehicle speed determining device that determines a target vehicle speed of the vehicle based on a signal from the object detecting device and the target inter-vehicle distance determined; a driving control device that executes a driving control on the vehicle based on the determined target vehicle speed; a control state determination device that sets the control state of the vehicle to one of a follow-up control state in which the vehicle is made to travel following at least the preceding vehicle and a stop hold state in which the vehicle is maintained in a stopped state; and a control start intention detection device that detects an intention of a driver to start the follow-up control or the stop hold control, wherein the control state determination device sets the control state of the vehicle to the follow-up control state when the preceding vehicle is detected by the preceding vehicle determining device and when the intention of the driver to start the follow-up control or the stop hold control is detected by the control start intention detection device, and sets the control state of the vehicle to the stop hold state when the intention of the driver to start the follow-up control or the stop hold control is detected by the control start intention detection device while the vehicle is substantially in the stopped state and no object is detected by the object detection device.