Volkswagen Ag

Wolfgang Baeker

Thomas Ruchatz

Peter Andreas

Heiko Rabba

Thomas Bizenberger

The present invention relates to a method for controlling the speed of a motor vehicle and the distance of the motor vehicle to least one motor vehicle driving ahead, where at least the speed v of the motor vehicle and the distance a to the motor vehicle driving ahead are determined with the aid of a detector having a distance sensor, where the traveling speed v is adjusted in response to the measured distance a deviating from a setpoint trailing distance a , and where the engineering problem of controlling the speed and the distance of a motor vehicle to least one preceding motor vehicle is solved in both a simple and reliable manner, in that an intervention distance a &prime; is determined which is less than the range of the distance sensor, and that the traveling speed v is adjusted at a distance a which is less than the intervention distance ai.

Method for controlling the speed and distance of a motor vehicle

A method for controlling the speed of a motor vehicle and the distance of a motor vehicle to at least one motor vehicle driving ahead includes the steps of: inputting a setpoint trailing distance to the motor vehicle driving ahead; determining, in accordance with at least one detector, at least the speed of the motor vehicle, the distance, and the speed relative to the motor vehicle driving ahead; decelerating or accelerating the motor vehicle in response to the detected distance deviating from the setpoint trailing distance; calculating, in response to the motor vehicle driving ahead being lost from the detection range of the detector (target loss), the speed of the motor vehicle driving ahead from the relative speed determined prior to losing the target; and calculating the actual distance from the driving speed of the motor vehicle. Thus, the speed of the motor vehicle driving ahead is derived from the measured values measured prior to the time of losing the target, and, in accordance with a differential time unit, the distance is extrapolated from the driven speed of the motor vehicle and the speed of the motor vehicle driving ahead.

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Braunschweig, Germany

Wolfgang Baeker