Patent ID: 8874347

Claim:
A surrounding vehicle recognition device equipped to a vehicle and configured to implement sequential determination of a front vehicle recognition state, which is a recognition state of a self vehicle about a front vehicle traveling ahead the self vehicle, the surrounding vehicle recognition device comprising: an inter-vehicle communication device; a surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit configured to acquire, via the inter-vehicle communication device, vehicle state notification information, which is sent from a surrounding vehicle existing around the vehicle, the vehicle state notification information including behavior related information, which is at least one of a position of a surrounding vehicle and speed related information; a behavior acquisition unit configured to acquire the behavior related information about a leading vehicle, which travels at a position closest to the self vehicle on an advancing route of the self vehicle; a front vehicle recognition determination unit configured to determine, as the front vehicle recognition state, one of three states including: a standby state, in which the vehicle state notification information is not received from a front vehicle; a detecting state, in which the vehicle state notification information is received from at least one front vehicle, and a leading vehicle cannot be specified; and a tracing state, in which a leading vehicle is specified, and the self vehicle travels immediately after the leading vehicle, wherein the front vehicle recognition state is determined according to the behavior related information included in the vehicle state notification information, which is acquired by the surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit, and the behavior related information, which is acquired by the behavior acquisition unit; and a sending control unit configured: to incorporate the front vehicle recognition state, which is determined by the front vehicle recognition determination unit, self vehicle specifying information, which specifies the self vehicle, and the behavior related information about the self vehicle, into the vehicle state notification information; to further incorporate leading vehicle specifying information, which specifies a leading vehicle, into the vehicle state notification information, when the tracing state is determined as the front vehicle recognition state; and to cause the inter-vehicle communication device to send the vehicle state notification information to surroundings of the self vehicle.