CONTROL APPARATUS FOR AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION OF A VEHICLE AND A CONTROL METHOD

A control apparatus and a control method for an automatic transmission, minimizes torque fluctuations which, if left unchecked, give vehicle passengers a disagreeable feeling upon a gear shift. The control apparatus and method suppresses, such torque fluctuations during a shift of the transmission to improve robustness and provide good shift characteristics. An inertia phase is recognized in which the engine speed starts to drop during the shift. At the beginning of the inertia phase, hydraulic pressures supplied to frictional engaging devices in the transmission are kept constant to suppress the torque fluctuations.