Vehicle control apparatus

A vehicle control apparatus for a vehicle provided with a drive source, an accelerator pedal, and a brake pedal, comprising:

• a drive state detection means for detecting a drive state of the vehicle including a drive force requested amount of a drive force outputted by the drive source;
• an output control means for executing a reduction control to reduce the drive force outputted by the drive source for the drive force requested amount;
• a permission condition determination means for determining whether or not a permission condition to permit execution of the reduction control is established;
• a termination condition determination means for determining whether or not a termination condition to terminate the execution of the reduction control is established;
• a travel intention estimation means for estimating whether or not a driver has a travel intention based on the drive state of the vehicle detected by the drive state detection means during the execution of the reduction control;
• and
• an accelerator opening degree memorization means for memorizing as a starting time accelerator opening degree the depression amount of the accelerator pedal when the reduction control starts to be executed by the output control means, wherein
• the drive state detection means has an accelerator detection means for detecting a depression amount of the accelerator pedal, and a brake detection means for detecting depression of the brake pedal,
• the permission condition determination means is operative to determine the establishment of the control permission condition when the depression of the accelerator pedal is detected by the accelerator detection means, and the depression of the brake pedal is detected by the brake detection means,
• the travel intention estimation means is operative to estimate whether or not the driver has a travel intention to travel the vehicle based on the depression amount of the accelerator pedal or the varied depression of the brake pedal detected by the drive state detection means,
• the termination condition determination means is operative to determine the establishment of the control termination condition when the travel intention estimation means estimates that the driver has the travel intention,
• the output control means is operative to execute the reduction control when the establishment of the control permission condition is determined by the permission condition determination means, and to terminate the reduction control when the establishment of the control termination condition is determined by the termination condition determination means, and
• the travel intention estimation means is operative to estimate that the driver has the travel intention when the depression amount of the accelerator pedal detected by the accelerator detection means is varied to exceed a set change amount of accelerator opening degree as compared with the starting time accelerator opening degree.