Patent ID: 7424357

Claim:
A lane departure prevention apparatus for a host vehicle comprising: a lane departure tendency determining section configured to determine a lane departure tendency indicative of a tendency of the host vehicle to depart from a driving lane; a running condition determining section configured to determine a driving environment of the host vehicle; a braking force control section configured to control a braking force in response to determinations by the lane departure tendency determining section and the running condition determining section to selectively produce a yaw moment on the host vehicle in accordance with the lane departure tendency of the host vehicle to avoid departure of the host vehicle from the driving lane, and a deceleration on the host vehicle in accordance with the driving environment of the host vehicle; a setting section configured to set a yaw moment contribution and a deceleration contribution based on the lane departure tendency detected by the lane departure tendency determining section and a direction information indicating at least one of right and left directions in which a level of risk is high with respect to the driving lane, the direction information being determined based on the driving environment that is determined by the running condition determining section; a target yaw moment calculation section configured to calculate a target yaw moment to selectively avoid departure from the driving lane of the host vehicle based on the yaw moment contribution that has been set by the setting section; and a deceleration control amount calculation section configured to calculate a deceleration control amount based on the deceleration contribution that has been set by the setting section, the braking force control section being further configured to selectively control the braking force based on the target yaw moment calculated by the target yaw moment calculation section and the deceleration control amount calculated by the deceleration control amount calculation section, when the lane departure tendency is determined by the lane departure tendency determining section.