<div class="htmlview paragraph">Remarkable advances are being seen in automotive electronics nowadays. New concepts are being reported for next- generation control systems that provide vehicle performance which matches the driver's intentions and sensitivities. With these systems, inferences are made about the driver's perceptions and the driving environment, and the control parameters are adjusted automatically to achieve the drivability desired by individual drivers or for various driving conditions. This paper presents a control scheme that is intended to be a key technology of a total vehicle control system. The control scheme matches the axle torque characteristics resulting from accelerator inputs with those of the desired reference model, regardless of the original nonlinear characteristics of the mechanical components. The effectiveness of this method is shown by both computer simulation results and experimental data.</div>