Running control apparatus and method

摘要

A running control apparatus and method control the state of running of a vehicle based on a relative positional relationship between the vehicle and a preceeding vehicle. In a case where a brake is actuated if the deceleration deviation obtained by subtracting an actual deceleration from a target deceleration is at least a third threshold DELTAalphas3, the brake is actuated provided that an object body detected by a laser radar device is a preceeding vehicle and that the same-lane probability that the preceeding vehicle is running in the same lane as the vehicle is at least a set probability. Thus, the brake is actuated when there is a high probability that braking is needed. Therefore, erroneous operation of the brake can be reduced.