Patent ID: 8471909

Claim:
A driving assistance apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a grip state detection section configured to detect a grip state of a steering wheel in a compartment of the vehicle; an image acquisition section configured to acquire a captured image of the compartment that covers a possible action range of a person who is seated in a driver's seat; a position specification section configured to specify, based on a captured image acquired by the image acquisition section, a position where a non-grip hand exists, the non-grip hand being a hand that is separate from the steering wheel, on condition that (i) the grip state of the steering wheel is in a hand-free state, in which at least either of two hands is separate from the steering wheel as a result of detecting of the grip state detection section, and (ii) a travel state of the vehicle is within a stipulated travel state, which is predetermined; a danger derivation section configured to derive a danger degree such that the danger degree comes to have a greater value as a degree of a danger against driving of the vehicle becomes higher because the non-grip hand exists in a position specified by the position specification section; and a warning section configured to execute an output of a warning in a weaker state as the danger degree derived by the danger derivation section comes to have a smaller value, wherein: the danger derivation section classifies a plurality of positions in the compartment in the vehicle based on danger degrees, and defines previously a low danger position within the positions classified, wherein the danger degree has a value smaller than a reference value when the non-grip hand exists in the low danger position; and the danger derivation section derives the danger degree such that when the non-grip hand exists in the low danger position, the danger degree has a value smaller as compared with a case that the non-grip hand exists in a high danger position, which is within the positions classified in the compartment and is other than the low danger position.