Autonomous driving control device

An autonomous driving control device configured to allow a subject vehicle to travel with autonomous travel control in which a driver has no surroundings monitoring obligation, the autonomous driving control device comprising:

• a processor and a memory configured to cause the autonomous driving control device to implement:
• a road shape grasping unit configured to grasp, as a road shape of a merging area in which a merging lane and a main vehicular lane merge, at least whether a number of lanes decreases in the merging area, when the subject vehicle travels with the autonomous travel control in the merging lane;
• and
• a continuation determination unit configured to change a driving control state of the subject vehicle including the autonomous travel control, according to whether the merging area has the road shape in which the number of lanes decreases, wherein
• the continuation determination unit is configured to change the driving control state to a state having a higher dependency on the driver, when the merging area has a road shape in which the merging lane narrows than when the merging area has a road shape in which the merging lane does not narrow.

An autonomous driving control device configured to allow a subject vehicle to travel with autonomous travel control in which a driver has no surroundings monitoring obligation, the autonomous driving control device comprising:

• a processor and a memory configured to cause the autonomous driving control device to implement:
• a road shape grasping unit configured to grasp whether a branching area, in which a number of lanes increases, is present in a traveling direction of the subject vehicle traveling with the autonomous travel control;
• a subject vehicle position grasping unit configured to grasp a position of a subject vehicle lane in which the subject vehicle travels;
• and
• a continuation determination unit configured to
• interrupt the autonomous travel control, when a branch lane, which is an increased lane in the branching area, is adjacent to the subject vehicle lane, and
• permit continuation of the autonomous travel control, when the branch lane is not adjacent to the subject vehicle lane, wherein
• the continuation determination unit is configured to
• determine transition to driving support control, in which the driver has a steering wheel gripping obligation, or manual driving, when the subject vehicle lane is adjacent to the branch lane and when a scheduled route of the subject vehicle is set to the branch lane, and
• determine transition to driving support control, in which the driver has a surroundings monitoring obligation, when the subject vehicle lane is adjacent to the branch lane and when the scheduled route of the subject vehicle is not set to the branch lane.

An autonomous driving control device configured to allow a subject vehicle to travel with autonomous travel control in which a driver has no surroundings monitoring obligation, the autonomous driving control device comprising:

• a processor and a memory configured to cause the autonomous driving control device to implement:
• a road shape grasping unit configured to, when a scheduled route of the subject vehicle, which travels with the autonomous travel control on a specific road on which traveling with the autonomous travel control is permitted, is set to a branch lane branching from a main vehicular lane of the specific road, grasp whether an end of the branch lane is an exit from the specific road;
• and
• a control change unit configured to, when the autonomous travel control is ended in the subject vehicle traveling toward the branch lane, change a content of travel control of the subject vehicle after the autonomous travel control is ended, according to whether the end of the branch lane is the exit, wherein
• the control change unit is configured to
• switch from the autonomous travel control to manual driving of the driver at a side of a start point of the branch lane, when the end of the branch lane is the exit, and
• switch from the autonomous travel control to driving support control, in which the driver has at least a surroundings monitoring obligation, at the side of the start point of the branch lane, when the end of the branch lane is not the exit.