1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control device that controls a vehicle. In particular, the present invention relates to a vehicle control device capable of suppressing collision of a vehicle with an obstacle caused by an erroneous driving operation, such as a brake pedal or an accelerator pedal being mistakenly stepped on instead of the other.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this type of vehicle control device, a device is proposed that performs control to reduce the speed of a vehicle, when an inter-vehicle distance is shorter than a safe inter-vehicle distance set in association with the speed of the vehicle and an accelerator pedal stepping force is a predetermined value C or more (refer to, for example, JP-A-H04-215527). In this device, even when the inter-vehicle distance is short and the accelerator is mistakenly operated instead of the brake which should have been operated, the speed can be reduced without the vehicle being accelerated in adherence to the accelerator operation.
However, in the technology disclosed in JP-A-H04-215527, although the safe inter-vehicle distance changes depending on the speed of the vehicle, the predetermined value C does not change. Therefore, even in a situation where the slightest acceleration is not permissible, if the accelerator pedal is lightly stepped on, the vehicle may accelerate in adherence to the accelerator operation. On the other hand, even in a situation allowing some leeway, the speed is reduced if the accelerator pedal stepping force exceeds the predetermined value C. In this way, an abnormality judgment threshold for the amount of accelerator operation is conventionally set to a fixed value regardless of the risk to the vehicle. Therefore, the driver may experience discomfort.
Thus, there is a demand for a vehicle control device that is capable of performing control to suppress dangerous situations for the vehicle without causing the driver to experience discomfort, when the accelerator is erroneously operated.