Patent attributes
A braking control device performs a steering and/or avoidance possibility determination based on the state of the vehicle to execute automatic vehicle braking when an obstacle in front of the vehicle cannot be avoided by steering and/or braking. The device determines that the obstacle can be avoided by steering when the correlation value between steering avoidance time and relative velocity is smaller than the distance from the vehicle to the obstacle. The steering avoidance time is set to a shorter value when the suspension characteristic is stiffer and the sideways force generated by the front wheels is larger. The steering avoidance time is set successively shorter for low, high, and medium speed travel regions, respectively, to reflect the behavior response characteristic of the vehicle with respect to steering input. The vehicle deceleration that would occur if the driver released the accelerator pedal is considered in the braking avoidance possibility determination.
