Travel control apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9550496-B2
Application number	US-201615131149-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2016
Priority date	Apr 28, 2015
Publication date	Jan 24, 2017
Grant date	Jan 24, 2017

Abstract

A travel control apparatus is configured to perform an overtaking travel on a host vehicle with a vehicle travelling ahead as an overtaking target vehicle during an autonomous driving of the host vehicle. In a case where the overtaking travel starts, the apparatus determines whether or not the overtaking target vehicle accelerates during the overtaking travel. In a case where it is determined that the overtaking target vehicle accelerates, the apparatus determines whether or not a front vehicle is present in front of the overtaking target vehicle. In a case where it is determined that the front vehicle is not present, the apparatus stops the overtaking travel of the host vehicle, and in a case where it is determined that the front vehicle is present, the apparatus continues the overtaking travel of the host vehicle under a predetermined condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A travel control apparatus configured to perform an overtaking travel on a host vehicle with a vehicle travelling ahead as an overtaking target vehicle during autonomous driving of the host vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
a travelling state acquisition unit configured to acquire travelling state information of vehicles surrounding the host vehicle;
an acceleration determination unit configured to determine whether or not the overtaking target vehicle accelerates at equal to or greater than a threshold value during the overtaking travel of the host vehicle based on the travelling state information;
a front vehicle determination unit configured to determine where or not a front vehicle travelling in front of the overtaking target vehicle is present based on the travelling state information in a case where the acceleration determination unit determines that the overtaking target vehicle accelerates at equal to or greater than the threshold value during the overtaking travel of the host vehicle; and
a travel control unit configured to stop the overtaking travel of the host vehicle in a case where the front vehicle determination unit determines that the front vehicle is not present, and to continue the overtaking travel or the host vehicle in a case where the front vehicle determination unit determines that the front vehicle is present.

2. The travel control apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:
an estimation unit configured to estimate whether or not the overtaking target vehicle decelerates due to the presence of the front vehicle in a case where the front vehicle determination unit determines that the front vehicle travelling in front of the overtaking target vehicle is present,
wherein, in a case where the estimation unit estimates that the overtaking target vehicle does not decelerate, the travel control unit is configured to stop the overtaking travel of the host vehicle, and in a case where the estimation unit estimates that the overtaking target vehicle decelerates, the travel control unit is configured to continue the overtaking travel of the host vehicle.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Suzuki Ikuma
• Matsunaga Masaki
• Taira Tetsuya

Classifications

• B60W40/105

  Speed · CPC title

• G05D1/0223

  involving speed control of the vehicle (vehicle fittings for automatically controlling, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator B60K31/00) · CPC title

• B60W2554/4041

  Position · CPC title

• B60W50/0097

  Predicting future conditions · CPC title

• B60W2720/10

  Longitudinal speed · CPC title