ESTIMATION OF THE FUTURE SPEED AND/OR DISTANCE OF A VEHICLE FROM A REFERENCE POINT AND ESTIMATION OF THE FUTURE ACCELERATION

The invention relates to a method for estimating a future speed of a vehicle and/or distance of a vehicle from a reference point, comprising: detecting the speed of the vehicle at a first distance of the vehicle along a path from a reference point; the vehicle being located at the first distance from the reference point at a first time; detecting the distance and the course of the distance of the vehicle from a preceding vehicle driving in front of the vehicle between the first time and a second time; during the detection, the preceding vehicle being located on a path on which the vehicle will also located under the assumption of a first driving maneuver from the first time to the second time; creating at least one first estimate of the speed of the vehicle for the second time and/or of the distance of the vehicle from the reference point for the second time; the first estimate being based on the speed of the vehicle at the first distance, the first distance from the reference point, and the second time; the first estimate of the speed and/or of the distance furthermore being based on a first course of the desired speed of the vehicle determined in advance for the assumption of the first driving maneuver in dependence on the distance of the vehicle from the reference point; characterized by: detection of the lateral deviation and the course of the lateral deviation of the preceding vehicle between the first time and the second time; the lateral deviation being the perpendicular distance of the vehicle center axis, in particular of the center or of the rear end of the vehicle center axis, from the path; the first estimate also taking into account the course of the distance from the preceding vehicle and a filtering, in particular low-pass filtering or smoothing, of the course of the detected distance in dependence on the course of the lateral deviation.