Vehicle to vehicle distance controller and vehicle

• Main Author: MANAKA TOSHIO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.10.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS INVEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OFTRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GASEXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS, IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; BLASTING; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; COMBUSTION ENGINES; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES; HEATING; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; LIGHTING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OFVEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SIGNALLING; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR; WEAPONS

In a vehicle to vehicle distance control device when a headway distance between a controlled vehicle in which the device is provided and a forward vehicle approaches or falls below a predetermined value a control unit controls the vehicle speed of the controlled vehicle so as to keep the headway distance at a predetermined value. When the device becomes unable to detect the presence of a forward vehicle, a constant speed control is provided for the controlled vehicle using either the controlled vehicle speed before the device became unable to detect the forward vehicle or a corrected vehicle speeds until an accelerator is operated. After the accelerator is operated, speed control is performed using a vehicle speed set by a driver of the vehicle.