Automatic drive control system

Claim 1

An automatic drive control for automatically steering a vehicle, comprising: radar means for detecting the existence of an obstacle in front of said vehicle and generating an obstacle detection signal; photographing means for photographing a road in front of said vehicle and generating a video signal; image processing means for generating a vehicle position signal showing a position of said vehicle in a road width direction from an image shown by said video signal; a navigation apparatus including a global positioning system apparatus and a road map information source containing road map data, for generating road data showing coordinates of the road in front of a current position of said vehicle; communicating means for receiving a traffic information signal for automatic driving issued from a stationary transmitter; running command generating means for generating a running command; running line establishing means for consecutively establishing an instantaneous running line with respect to the road map represented by said map data in response to said obstacle detection signal, said vehicle position signal, said road data, said traffic information signal for automatic driving, and said running command; and target running locus calculating means for consecutively determining a target instantaneous running locus on the basis of said established instantaneous running line; and steering means for steering said vehicle so as to trace and run along said instantaneous running locus thereby to avoid a dangerous situation of said vehicle.