Patent ID: 8275542

Claim:
A navigation device for a vehicle, comprising: a controller that provides branch point guidance without a user-requested route search being performed by: acquiring information that indicates a current road on which the vehicle is traveling; acquiring information that relates to a plurality of branching roads that branch off from the current road at a branching point that lies ahead in the direction of movement of the vehicle; specifying a current lane in which the vehicle is traveling on the current road; acquiring travel direction restriction information for the current lane; specifying one of the plurality of branching roads that extends from the current road in a direction that corresponds to the travel direction restriction information for the current lane; determining whether an attribute of the specified branching road is the same as an attribute of the current road; when it is determined that the attribute of the specified branching road is not the same as the attribute of the current road, determining that there is a possibility that the vehicle will proceed on a different-type branching road at the branch point; and when it is determined that there is a possibility that the vehicle will proceed on the different-type branching road, performing guidance indicating that there is a possibility that the vehicle will proceed on the different-type branching road.