Patent ID: 8615352

Claim:
A driving support apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a front vehicle detector configured to detect a vehicle in front on a subject vehicle travel path; an automatic follow-up controller capable of selectively executing as an automatic follow-up control, when the vehicle in front is detected, any of controls including a follow-up cruise control controlling the subject vehicle to follow the vehicle in front that is traveling, a follow-up stop control controlling the subject vehicle to stop as the vehicle in front that stops during the follow-up cruise control, and a stop maintaining control maintaining a stopped state of the subject vehicle that has stopped as a result of the follow-up stop control; a starting permission determiner configured to permit starting of the subject vehicle from a stopped state when a preset operational input is made by a driver during the stop maintaining control and an inter-vehicle distance to the vehicle in front exceeds a determination threshold before a preset amount of time passes from the operational input; and a threshold setter configured to calculate a first threshold that is updated to a larger value according to a change in the inter-vehicle distance to the vehicle in front in a stopped state when the inter-vehicle distance changes to a larger value and a second threshold that is changed to a larger value as a speed of the vehicle in front increases, and to variably set the determination threshold based on the larger of the first threshold and the second threshold.