Driving Control Apparatus For Vehicle

A driving control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

• an environmental condition estimating part including a surrounding recognition function for recognizing a vehicle's driving lane, neighboring lanes, and other vehicles driving in the driving lanes and a function for obtaining the vehicle's moving state;
• a path generating part for generating a target path on the basis of information obtained by the environmental condition estimating part;
• and
• a vehicle control part configured to perform speed control and steering control for causing the vehicle to follow the target path, and having:
• a function for performing automated lane change to a neighboring lane when there is no other vehicle in a predetermined range of the neighboring lane;
• and
• a function for determining whether lane change should be continued when another vehicle is recognized in a predetermined area around the vehicle during execution of the automated lane change,
• wherein the driving control apparatus has a function for altering the predetermined area serving as a criterion of the continuation determination of lane, when the vehicle's own position is in a specific section including a lane diverging section during execution of the automated lane, to a second predetermined area smaller than the predetermined area when the vehicle's own position is in a general section other than the specific section.