Patent ID: 9061590
Filing Date: 2015-06-23
Classification: B60K,B60W

Abstract:
1. A leading vehicle detecting apparatus that is mounted in an own vehicle and judges whether or not the own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, the leading vehicle detecting apparatus including: a signal acquiring section that acquires both a position signal outputted from a position detecting device, which detects a position of the preceding vehicle, and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting device, which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling; a storage section that stores in advance the position signal of the preceding vehicle that is discretely acquired and a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of a distance between an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the preceding vehicle at a plurality of different points within a predetermined period; a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line of the own vehicle on the basis of the detection signal, determines the position of the preceding vehicle at the plurality of different points within the predetermined period on the basis of the position signal being a plurality of position signals differing in elapsed time after acquisition, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the preceding vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line of the own vehicle, the determined position of the preceding vehicle at the plurality of different points within the predetermined period, and the probability map; and one or more processors that are configured to pertain as the signal acquiring section, the storage section, and the calculating section, wherein the probability map is one or more graphs of an offset amount versus the probability, and the probability map associates a given offset with a respective probability, and the offset amount is an error between an approximated curve of a cruising track of the preceding vehicle and the expected cruising line of the own vehicle.