Patent ID: 7224445

Claim:
A vehicle external recognition system comprising: a relative position detecting section detecting an object ahead of a vehicle as a detected object to detect a relative position relationship between the detected object and the vehicle; a relative velocity calculating section calculating a relative velocity between the detected object and the vehicle based on the relative position relationship detected by the relative position detecting section by using an initial value that is preset, wherein the relative velocity calculating section calculates a plurality of relative velocity candidates based on a plurality of different initial values that are preset; a vehicle velocity detecting section detecting a velocity of the vehicle; a motion attribute discriminating section discriminating a motion attribute, indicative of a motion state of the detected object, based on the relative velocity calculated by the relative velocity calculating section and the velocity detected by the vehicle velocity detecting section; and a relative velocity determining section selecting a relative velocity candidate, associated with the motion attribute discriminated by the motion attribute discriminating section, from among the plurality of relative velocity candidates calculated by the relative velocity calculating section, and determining the relative velocity candidate as a relative velocity between the detected object and the vehicle.