Autonomous lane change of a vehicle considering steering intervention and stop condition

An electronic control unit for vehicle traveling that executes autonomous driving control that causes a vehicle to travel autonomously,

• the autonomous driving control including autonomous lane change control that achieves autonomous lane change of a vehicle,
• the autonomous lane change control including arithmetic operation concerning the autonomous lane change control and steering control based on the result of the arithmetic operation, and
• the electronic control unit for vehicle traveling executing:
• a process of starting the autonomous lane change control in response to receiving an instruction to start the autonomous lane change;
• a process of determining whether or not a steering intervention by a driver occurs during execution of the autonomous lane change control;
• a process of determining whether or not a direction of the steering intervention coincides with a direction of steering that is required by the autonomous lane change control;
• a process of determining whether or not a stop condition of the autonomous lane change is established when the direction of the steering intervention coincides with the direction of steering required by the autonomous lane change control;
• a process of giving priority to steering of the driver by temporarily stopping said steering control when it is determined that the stop condition is not established while the arithmetic operation concerning the steering control is continued when it is determined that the stop condition is not established;
• a process of returning to an original lane when the direction of the steering intervention does not coincide with the direction of steering required by the autonomous lane change control;
• and
• when the steering intervention in a same direction as autonomous lane change occurs during execution of the autonomous lane change control, a process of transitioning a state of the vehicle to a steering preference of the driver.