Patent ID: 7200481

Claim:
A driving assist system for a vehicle comprising: a state recognition device that detects a vehicle condition and a traveling environment of a subject vehicle; a future state prediction device that predicts future driving conditions, the predicting including calculating at least one of a current degree of proximity to a preceding vehicle and an extent of influence on the subject vehicle due to future changes in surrounding environment, the calculating being based on detection results of the state recognition device; and a risk potential calculating device that calculates risk potential around the subject vehicle based on the future driving conditions predicted by the future state prediction device and a driver's intentions; wherein: the state recognition device detects the vehicle condition and the traveling environment of the subject vehicle including a subject vehicle speed, a preceding vehicle speed, and a distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle; the future state prediction device calculates a time headway based on one of a set of the distance between vehicles and the subject vehicle speed and a set of the distance between vehicles and the preceding vehicle speed as the extent of influence due to changes in the surrounding environment; and the risk potential calculating device calculates the risk potential based on a reciprocal of the time headway.