Driver assistance apparatus for electric vehicle

A driver assistance apparatus for an electric vehicle, the driver assistance apparatus comprising:

• a battery;
• a motor generator configured to drive the electric vehicle with electric power supplied from the battery and to charge the battery with electric power generated by regenerative braking upon decelerating the electric vehicle;
• a vehicle speed sensor configured to detect an own vehicle speed of the electric vehicle;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing executable instructions that cause the processor to:
• acquire travel environment data on a travel route of the electric vehicle;
• control a vehicle speed and a deceleration rate of the electric vehicle based on the own vehicle speed and the travel environment data by causing the motor generator to drive the electric vehicle or to perform the regenerative braking;
• and
• determine whether a narrowed portion of the travel route is detected based on the travel environment data while the electric vehicle is traveling on a wide portion of the travel route, the wide portion being a portion of the travel route that is wide enough to allow two-way traffic and the narrowed portion being a portion of the travel route that continues from the wide portion and is not wide enough to allow two-way traffic, wherein, in response to determining that the narrow portion is detected, the processor then
• determines whether the narrowed portion of the travel route includes a stop position based on the travel environment data,
• determines a target vehicle speed for entering the narrowed portion based on the travel environment data corresponding to the narrow portion in response to determining that the narrowed portion includes the stop position,
• determines a first deceleration rate at which the own vehicle speed is decreased per unit time, the first deceleration rate increasing as a section distance becomes shorter, the section distance being a distance between a first point, at which the narrowed portion of the travel route starts, and the stop position, and
• executes a deceleration control to control the motor generator to decelerate the electric vehicle at the first deceleration rate to the target vehicle speed using only the regenerative braking so that the own vehicle speed becomes equal to the target vehicle speed when the electric vehicle reaches a second point located a predetermined distance greater than zero upstream of the first point.