Patent ID: 7532109

Claim:
An obstacle verification system comprising: an object detecting section configured to detect a preceding object existing in front of a host vehicle; a vehicle running state detecting section configured to output a running state detection result indicative of a vehicle running state; a traveling scene determining section configured to determine a current traveling scene based on both a longitudinal relative velocity of the preceding object detected by the object detection section with respect to the host vehicle in a longitudinal direction of the host vehicle and a transverse relative velocity of the preceding object detected by the object detecting section with respect to the host vehicle in a widthwise direction of the host vehicle; a preliminary obstacle verifying section configured to make a plurality of preliminary determinations as to whether the preceding object will become an obstacle using a plurality of verification methods, respectively, with each of the verification methods obtaining the preliminary determinations based on both the preceding object detected by the object detecting section and the running state of the host vehicle detected by the vehicle running state detecting section; a precision determining section configured to determine a degree of precision regarding each of the preliminary determinations obtained by the preliminary obstacle verifying section using the verification methods; and a final obstacle verifying section configured to calculate a verification result based on the preliminary determinations obtained by the preliminary obstacle verifying section using the verification methods and based on the current traveling scene determined by the traveling scene determining section, and the final obstacle verifying section being further configured to make a final determination as to whether the preceding object will become an obstacle based on the verification result and the degrees of precision determined by the precision determining section for the preliminary determinations.