System for controlling distance to a vehicle traveling ahead based on an adjustable probability distribution

A system for controlling an intervehicle distance between a system vehicle equipped with the system and a preceding vehicle present ahead of the system vehicle comprising:

• speed measuring means for measuring a speed of the system vehicle;
• beam scanning means for scanning a beam over a given scanning angle in a width-wise direction of the system vehicle and receiving beams reflected from objects present within a forward detection zone defined by the scanning angle to detect the objects;
• distance and angular position determining means for determining distances to and angular positions of the objects in the forward detection zone based on the reflected beams:
• relative position and speed determining means for determining relative positions and relative speeds of the objects to the system vehicle based on the distances and the angular positions of the objects determined by said distance and angular position determining means;
• curve determining means for determining a degree of a curve in a road on which the system vehicle is traveling;
• same lane probability determining means for determining same lane probabilities of the objects being present in the same traffic lane as the system vehicle based on the degree of the curve determined by said curve determining means and the relative positions of the objects determined by said relative position and speed determining means;
• target preceding vehicle selecting means for selecting a target preceding vehicle out of the objects in the forward detection zone based on the same lane probabilities determined by said same lane probability determining means;
• and
• intervehicle distance control means for controlling an intervehicle distance between the system vehicle and the target preceding vehicle selected by said target preceding vehicle selecting means, said intervehicle distance means controlling the speed of the system vehicle measured by said speed measuring means to control the intervehicle distance.