Vehicle control apparatus

摘要

A vehicle control apparatus is operative so as to prevent a chattering of initiation and termination of vehicle control, such as automatic deceleration, on the basis of a variation in a predicted passing speed. The apparatus comprises a maximum passable speed calculating mechanism M5 which calculates a maximum passable speed of a forward curve ahead of the vehicle on the basis of a road shape determined by a road shape decision mechanism M11, and a predicted passing speed calculating mechanism M7 calculates a predicted passing speed for the forward curve on the basis of a vehicle speed detected by a vehicle speed detector M6. The maximum passable speed includes a control initiation speed and a control termination speed larger than the control initiation speed, and a passage-possible/impossible determining mechanism M8 initiates operations of a warning mechanism M9 and a vehicle speed regulating mechanism M10 if the predicted passing speed exceeds the control initiation speed, and terminates the operations of the warning mechanism M9 and the vehicle speed regulating mechanism M10 if the predicted passing speed falls below the control termination speed.