Patent ID: 8736483

Claim:
A collision avoidance apparatus for avoiding a collision between an own vehicle and a movable object, the collision avoidance apparatus comprising: a laterally-existing movable object detector configured to detect a movable object that approaches from a direction lateral to the own vehicle; and an electronic control unit including: a side collision determination section configured to determine whether or not a risk that the own vehicle and the movable object collide with each other is high, when the laterally-existing movable object detector detects that the movable object approaches from the direction lateral to the own vehicle; an automatic deceleration section configured to start a deceleration control for automatically decelerating the own vehicle, when the side collision determination section determines that the risk that the own vehicle and the movable object collide with each other, is high; a passage and avoidance determination section configured to determine, while the deceleration control for the own vehicle is being executed by the automatic deceleration section, whether or not a possibility that the own vehicle passes in front of the movable object and a collision between the own vehicle and the movable object can be avoided if an accelerated state or a decelerated state of the own vehicle is changed, is high; a driving force controller configured to control a driving force for the own vehicle; and an accelerated state/decelerated state controller configured to control the automatic deceleration section to stop the deceleration control and control the driving force controller to enhance the driving force for the own vehicle to accelerate the own vehicle when the passage and avoidance determination section determines that a possibility that a collision between the own vehicle and the movable object can be avoided by the accelerated state or the decelerated state of the own vehicle being changed, is high.