Vehicle control system

A vehicle control system comprising:

• means for controlling a running condition of a vehicle by setting a target acceleration based on a distance from and relative speed with respect to an object ahead of the running vehicle and accelerating or decelerating the vehicle according to the target acceleration;
• and
• means for performing control for avoiding collision if a collision with the object cannot be avoided by the control performed by the running condition control means, wherein
• the running condition control means performs actual control with the target acceleration limited to a limit acceleration that is preset to a negative value if the target acceleration is smaller than the limit acceleration;
• the collision avoiding control means performs control with an avoidance acceleration that is smaller than the limit acceleration at least at the start of the control;
• and
• the avoidance acceleration is set such that a perceivable difference to the driver is generated between behaviors of the vehicle during control by the running condition control means and during control by the collision avoiding control means.

A vehicle control system comprising:

• means for controlling a running condition of a vehicle by setting a target control amount based on a distance from and relative speed with respect to an object present ahead of the vehicle and accelerating or decelerating the vehicle according to the target control amount;
• means for performing control for avoiding collision if a collision with the object cannot be avoided by the control performed by the running condition control means;
• means for generating an alarm when the possibility is high that the collision avoiding control means is activated;
• and
• means for inhibiting operation of the collision avoiding control means if a specified operation indicating that no control by the collision avoiding control means is necessary is detected in a period after activation of the alarm means and before activation of the collision avoiding control means.