Systems for Control of Understeer in an Autonomous Vehicle

A control system 10 for a vehicle 100 has one or more controllers and has an autonomous driving mode. The control system is configured to, in the autonomous driving mode, obtain lateral acceleration data indicative of the lateral acceleration of the vehicle. The lateral acceleration data is used to limit a steering angle of one or more wheels 111, 112, 114, and 115 of the vehicle and a longitudinal speed of the vehicle in dependence on the lateral acceleration data. The vehicle lateral acceleration data may be known to the controller either from a lateral acceleration sensor of the vehicle, or by obtaining the product of the longitudinal speed and a yaw rate of the vehicle. The control system may include a low-speed progress (LSP) control system 12, a stability control system (SCS) 14, a cruise control system 16, a hill descent control (HDC) system 12HD, an anti-lock braking system controller (ABS) 13, etc, and the lateral acceleration data may be obtained by sensors linked to at least one of these systems.