A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus having a recognition capability comprising: an imaging section configured to image an ambient situation; an illumination estimation section configured to estimate illumination from an image captured by the imaging section; a necessary image storage time calculation section configured to calculate an image storage time necessary to obtain contrast enabling the presence or absence of an obstacle to be recognized, based on illumination information of the illumination estimation section; a vehicle information acquisition section configured to detect the vehicle speed; a possible image storage time calculation section configured to calculate an image storage time that is an upper limit of storage time to suppress image blurring to within a certain range acceptable for recognition, based on vehicle speed obtained by the vehicle information acquisition section; a recognition possibility/impossibility determination section configured to compare the necessary image storage time calculated by the necessary image storage time calculation section and the possible storage time calculated by the possible image storage time calculation section, and determines whether or not it is possible to secure a storage time necessary for image recognition; an image storage section configured to sequentially store images captured by the imaging section when the recognition possibility/impossibility determination section can secure that an image storage time is available; an image recognition section configured to detect whether or not there is an obstacle in an image resulting from combining images stored by the image storage section; an output information generation section configured to output information relating to an obstacle detected by the image recognition section, or, if the recognition possibility/impossibility determination section cannot secure that an image storage time is available, information indicating a state in which recognition is impossible; and a display section configured to display information output by the output information generation section. an imaging section configured to image an ambient situation; an illumination estimation section configured to estimate illumination from an image captured by the imaging section; a necessary image storage time calculation section configured to calculate an image storage time necessary to obtain contrast enabling the presence or absence of an obstacle to be recognized, based on illumination information of the illumination estimation section; a vehicle information acquisition section configured to detect the vehicle speed; a possible image storage time calculation section configured to calculate an image storage time that is an upper limit of storage time to suppress image blurring to within a certain range acceptable for recognition, based on vehicle speed obtained by the vehicle information acquisition section; a recognition possibility/impossibility determination section configured to compare the necessary image storage time calculated by the necessary image storage time calculation section and the possible storage time calculated by the possible image storage time calculation section, and determines whether or not it is possible to secure a storage time necessary for image recognition; an image storage section configured to sequentially store images captured by the imaging section when the recognition possibility/impossibility determination section can secure that an image storage time is available; an image recognition section configured to detect whether or not there is an obstacle in an image resulting from combining images stored by the image storage section; an output information generation section configured to output information relating to an obstacle detected by the image recognition section, or, if the recognition possibility/impossibility determination section cannot secure that an image storage time is available, information indicating a state in which recognition is impossible; and a display section configured to display information output by the output information generation section.