Patent ID: 8200396

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling a lighting angle of headlights installed in a vehicle, comprising: position detecting means for a current location of the vehicle; storing means for storing road information showing a road on which the vehicle is running currently; curve obtaining means for obtaining, from the current position and the road information, a curve of the road which is located ahead of the vehicle and obtaining a radius of the curve; distance obtaining means for obtaining a distance from the current position to a starting point of the curve based on the current position and the road information; curve determining means for determining whether or not the curve is an S-shaped curve based on the road information; line-shape setting means for setting line-shape information showing a line shape of the S-curve, in response to determination results of the curve determining means; angle calculating means for calculating a lighting angle of the headlights based on the radius of the curve, the distance and the line-shape information; and controlling means for controlling the lighting angle of the headlights based on the calculated lighting angle.