Vehicle control systems for controlling automated vehicle acceleration and braking

A vehicle control system for controlling automated vehicle acceleration and braking, and steering, the vehicle control system comprising:

• at least one vehicle object sensor configured to detect multiple target vehicles ahead of a host vehicle including a closest-in-path (CIP) target vehicle ahead of the host vehicle;
• and
• a vehicle control module of the host vehicle, the vehicle control module configured to:
• track movement of each of the multiple target vehicles;
• determine a probabilistic forward travel path of the host vehicle;
• select one of the multiple target vehicles having a lowest time to collision (TTC) with the host vehicle as the CIP target vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, based on the movement of each of the multiple target vehicles;
• obtain a path history of the CIP target vehicle, the path history including multiple historic positions of the CIP target vehicle at specified time intervals;
• obtain a path history of the host vehicle, the path history of the host vehicle including multiple historic positions of the host vehicle at the specified time intervals;
• compare the path history of the CIP target vehicle to the path history of the host vehicle to determine a divergence index;
• and
• in response to the divergence index being less than a specified divergence threshold, control automated acceleration, braking and steering of the host vehicle based at least in part on tracked movement of the CIP target vehicle.

A vehicle control system for controlling automated vehicle acceleration and braking, and steering, the vehicle control system comprising:

• at least one vehicle object sensor configured to detect multiple target vehicles ahead of a host vehicle including a closest-in-path (CIP) target vehicle ahead of the host vehicle;
• and
• a vehicle control module of the host vehicle, the vehicle control module configured to:
• track movement of each of the multiple target vehicles;
• determine a probabilistic forward travel path of the host vehicle;
• select one of the multiple target vehicles having a lowest time to collision (TTC) with the host vehicle as the CIP target vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, based on the movement of each of the multiple target vehicles;
• obtain a path history of the CIP target vehicle, the path history including multiple historic positions of the CIP target vehicle at specified time intervals;
• obtain a path history of the host vehicle, the path history of the host vehicle including multiple historic positions of the host vehicle at the specified time intervals;
• compare the path history of the CIP target vehicle to the path history of the host vehicle to determine a divergence index;
• in response to the divergence index being less than a specified divergence threshold, control automated acceleration, braking and steering of the host vehicle based at least in part on tracked movement of the CIP target vehicle;
• transforming coordinates of the multiple historic positions of the CIP target vehicle to generate an updated path history of the CIP target vehicle;
• transforming coordinates of the multiple historic positions of the host vehicle to generate an updated path history of the host vehicle;
• and
• comparing the updated path history of the CIP target vehicle to the updated path history of the host vehicle to determine an updated divergence index.