Vehicle control apparatus
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Corporation
InventorsYohei AKASHI, Hideyuki TANAKA, Hiroyuki SAITO
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Abstract
An object is to provide a vehicle control apparatus capable of enhancing fuel economy when coasting is performed by disconnecting a clutch disposed between an engine and drive wheels of the vehicle. A travel path and a travel pattern of a vehicle are predicted by a vehicle outside information collection device, such as a navigation system. Also, amounts of fuel consumption by normal traveling and coasting are predicted and compared, so that coasting control is performed in a case where an amount of fuel consumption can be reduced by performing the coasting control.
Claims9
A vehicle control apparatus, comprising:
- an engine as a drive source of a vehicle;
- a motive power transmission device that transmits motive power between the engine and the self to drive wheels of the vehicle;
- a vehicle outside information collection device that determines a travel path the vehicle is traveling and predicts a travel path and a travel pattern obtained from the determined travel path while obtaining road information of the predicted travel path;
- and
- a control device that makes a switching between a first travel mode in which the motive power of the engine is transmitted to the drive wheels by setting the motive power transmission device in a connected state, and a second travel mode in which the motive power of the engine is not transmitted to the drive wheels by setting the motive power transmission device in an open state,
- wherein the control device predicts an amount of fuel consumption when the first travel mode is selected and an amount of fuel consumption when the second travel mode is selected according to a vehicle speed pattern predicted from the travel path and the road information, and makes a switching to one of the travel modes in which the predicted amount of fuel consumption is the smaller by comparing the predicted amounts of fuel consumption.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.