Patent ID: 7885766

Claim:
A vehicle departure determination apparatus comprising: an object detection device which detects objects present in a direction of travel of a subject vehicle, and detects a relative position and relative speed of the objects and said subject vehicle; a running state detection device which detects a running state of said subject vehicle; a speed detection device which detects a speed of said subject vehicle; an oncoming vehicle determination device which determines whether any of said objects serving as oncoming vehicles for said subject vehicle are present, where objects serving as oncoming vehicles are traveling in a direction of travel substantially opposite to said direction of travel of the subject vehicle, based on said relative speed detected by said object detection device, and the speed of said subject vehicle detected by said speed detection device; a departure determination device which determines a departure state of the subject vehicle by determining whether or not the subject vehicle has departed from an appropriate route for said subject vehicle and determines a departure state of the oncoming vehicle by determining whether or not the oncoming vehicle has departed from an appropriate route for said oncoming vehicle; a contact prediction device which predicts the likelihood of contact between said subject vehicle and said oncoming vehicle; and a contact avoidance device which performs a contact avoidance operation when the contact prediction device predicts the likelihood of the contact, wherein a first operation is performed by the contact avoidance device when the departure state of the subject vehicle indicates that the subject vehicle has departed from the appropriate route for said subject vehicle, and the contact avoidance device performs a second operation when the departure state of the oncoming vehicle indicates that said oncoming vehicle has departed from the appropriate route for said oncoming vehicle.