ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,841, issued on April 22, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Vehicle control device" was invented by Satoshi Handa (Kariya, Japan), Shusaku Sugamoto (Toyota, Japan) and Satoshi Inoue (Anjyou, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "When it is determined that there is no possibility of a driver performing a predetermined steering operation for moving a host vehicle in a lateral direction without involving a change in a final travel direction, a vehicle control device sets a steering reaction force to be greater than a standard reaction force. When it is determined that there is a possibility thereof, the vehicle control ...