Vehicle travel control apparatus

A vehicle travel control apparatus, comprising:

• following target vehicle detection means for detecting a following target vehicle traveling ahead of an own vehicle;
• predicted cutting-in vehicle detection means for detecting a predicted cutting-in vehicle predicted to carry out cutting-in of merging between the own vehicle and the following target vehicle;
• first acceleration acquisition means for acquiring, as a first acceleration, an acceleration of the own vehicle required to cause an inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the following target vehicle to be a first inter-vehicle distance;
• second acceleration acquisition means for acquiring, as a second acceleration, an acceleration of the own vehicle required to cause an inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the predicted cutting-in vehicle to be a second inter-vehicle distance;
• target acceleration acquisition means for acquiring a target acceleration of the own vehicle based on the first acceleration and the second acceleration;
• travel control means for controlling a driving force and a braking force of the own vehicle, the travel control means configured to autonomously control the driving force and the braking force based on the target acceleration to cause an actual acceleration of the own vehicle to approach the target acceleration;
• cutting-in probability acquisition means for acquiring a cutting-in probability, which is a probability that the predicted cutting-in vehicle carries out the cutting-in;
• and
• information notification means for notifying a driver of the own vehicle of the cutting-in of the predicted cutting-in vehicle from a first time point to a second time point, wherein the first time point occurs when the cutting-in probability has been higher than a predetermined start probability threshold for a first fixed predetermined period of time to limit display inversion phenomena, and the second time point occurs when the cutting-in probability has been lower than a predetermined end probability threshold for a second fixed predetermined period of time to limit display inversion phenomena.