US Patent 10414398 Vehicle travel control device that controls following of a vehicle

Provided is a vehicle travel control device capable of improving the usability of a following control by detecting dangerous behavior in a preceding vehicle, and differing the release timing of the following control. A vehicle travel control device having a preceding vehicle behavior recognition means for obtaining behavior information for a preceding vehicle, a preceding vehicle behavior determination means for detecting the degree of risk of dangerous behavior in the preceding vehicle from the behavior information, and determining the feasibility of a following control targeting the preceding vehicle on the basis of the detected dangerous behavior risk degree, and a vehicle operation control means for outputting an acceleration/deceleration/braking/steering control command to an actuator on the basis of the feasibility determination for the following control, wherein dangerous behavior is detected on the basis of the preceding vehicle behavior information, and the timing differs between a first release timing for the following control when a first dangerous behavior is detected and a second release timing for the following control when a second dangerous behavior different from the first dangerous behavior is detected.