Patent ID: 8457892

Claim:
An own-vehicle-path determining method comprising: detecting a position and an internal condition of an object, including other vehicles present within a predetermined surrounding range, by a sensor unit mounted on an own vehicle; generating a track representing a possible positional change of at least two objects based on the detected results within a predetermined time in a time-space configured with time and space, the at least two objects including at least the own vehicle and one of the other vehicles; predicting a path of the at least two objects using the generated track; calculating a first evaluation value of each of plural predicted own-vehicle-path candidates, the first evaluation value indicating an evaluation of safety of the own vehicle obtained by calculating a possibility of interference such as collision between the other vehicle and each of the plural predicted own-vehicle-path candidates; calculating a second evaluation value of each of the plural predicted own-vehicle-path candidates, the second evaluation value indicating an evaluation of driving efficiency of the own vehicle; first selecting own-vehicle-path candidates with high first evaluation values from the plural predicted own-vehicle-path candidates; second selecting own-vehicle-path candidates with high second evaluation values as appropriate own-vehicle-path candidates from the first selected own-vehicle-path candidates; and selecting any one of the appropriate own-vehicle-path candidates as an own-vehicle path.