ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,384,378, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Control apparatus and control method" was invented by Motohiro Fukaya (Susono, Japan) and Kentaro Takahashi (Shizuoka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure proposes a technique regarding a control apparatus for controlling a vehicle. The control apparatus is configured to execute the following first to third processes. The first process is determining whether or not a required space for performing a lane change is secured in an adjacent lane in response to a request for the lane change to the adjacent lane of the vehicle. The second p...