Adaptive cruise control system for motor vehicles

An adaptive cruise control system for a host motor vehicle, comprising:

• a sensor for measuring a distance to a preceding vehicle;
• an adaptive cruise controller for calculating control interventions into at least one of a drive system and a braking system of the host motor vehicle for regulating the distance to a setpoint distance, a detuning parameter being adjustable in the adaptive cruise controller, which determines an intensity of a response of the adaptive cruise controller to a control deviation, wherein the detuning parameter is adjustable based on a comparison of an instantaneous setpoint acceleration of the host motor vehicle with a threshold acceleration;
• a traffic jam detection module;
• and
• a detuning controller which, with the detuning parameter as a manipulated variable, adjusts a frequency of control interventions having an intensity above a minimum intensity to a setpoint frequency adapted to a traffic jam situation when the traffic jam detection module detects a traffic jam,
• wherein the threshold acceleration is a negative threshold value, and wherein the traffic jam detection module in each case records a maximum value of an intrinsic velocity of the host motor vehicle achieved up to a point in time at which an acceleration of the host motor vehicle drops below the negative threshold value, and decides that the traffic jam exists, if the maximum value reached is below a specific value, and
• wherein the detuning controller counts control interventions, in which the acceleration of the host motor vehicle drops below the negative threshold value, which indicates the minimum intensity of the control intervention.