Patent ID: 8855850

Claim:
A parking assistant comprising: a shooting part for shooting vehicle surroundings; a parking target position setter for setting a parking target position in a vehicle surroundings image shot by the shooting part; a rearward movement starting position candidate calculator for calculating candidates for a rearward movement starting position based on: the parking target position set by the parking target position setter, and a movable area of a vehicle, the rearward movement starting position denoting a position for stopping the vehicle and thereby starting a rearward movement of the vehicle, so as to park the vehicle in the parking target position; a movement calculator for sensing a movement direction of the vehicle and a movement amount of the vehicle; an image generator for superposing an information image on the vehicle surroundings image based on the movement direction and the movement amount which are sensed with the movement calculator, wherein the information image denotes the candidates for the rearward movement starting position for allowing the vehicle to be parked in the parking target position, and during a movement of the vehicle toward a certain candidate selected from the candidates for the rearward movement starting position, according to the sensed movement direction and the sensed movement amount of the vehicle, the image generator generates, with different displays, a plurality of sub-positions of the candidates for the rearward movement starting position; the plurality of sub-positions including a first sub-position which allows the vehicle to move to the parking target position, and a second sub-position which fails to allow the vehicle to be parked in the parking target position; and further comprising an obstacle sensor for sensing a position of an obstacle present in the vehicle surroundings, wherein based on the position of the obstacle sensed with the obstacle sensor, the image generator deletes from the information image a candidate which is selected from the candidates for the rearward movement starting position calculated with the rearward movement starting position candidate calculator and to which the vehicle is not movable due to the obstacle.