Adaptative cruise control

An adaptive cruise control system for a motor vehicle comprising:

• a forward looking object detecting means arranged to simultaneously detect several target objects moving in the predicted path and adjacent paths of the equipped vehicle, the means being further arranged to continuously monitor velocity and distance to each of the target objects;
• processing means arranged to process signals from the detecting means to provide information of distance to and relative speed of vehicles travelling in front of the equipped vehicle, wherein the processing means further is arranged to repeatedly generate velocity control signals based on the information of distance to and relative speed of vehicles travelling in front of the equipped vehicle;
• and
• means to control velocity of the equipped vehicle in response to the control signals from the processing means,
• wherein the processing means is farther arranged to calculate a distance in time from the equipped vehicle to a virtual target vehicle, the distance to and velocity of the virtual target vehicle calculated on basis of the number of vehicles in the group, the spread in distance of the group, and thus the vehicle density of the group, and the variability of positions in the group, such that the algorithm of the processing means decides from the above parameters tin the allowed deviations in time distance, wherein the processing means is arranged to produce a signal to the means for controlling the velocity of the equipped vehicle that is based on the calculated distance in time between the equipped vehicle and the virtual vehicle.