JP2006178673A - Traveling support device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a traveling support device capable of detecting a pedestrian anticipated to affect passage of another vehicle around one's own vehicle and transmitting information about the detected pedestrian to the other vehicle by means of inter-vehicle communication. <P>SOLUTION: When a pedestrian anticipated to affect passage of another vehicle is detected around one's own vehicle, pedestrian information about the detected pedestrian is transmitted by means of inter-vehicle communication. The other vehicle in receipt of the pedestrian information determines, based on the received information, whether the pedestrian affects its own passage (step S2), whether the vehicle itself and the pedestrian tend to approach each other (steps S3 to S5), and whether the time required for the vehicle itself to reach the pedestrian is below a threshold (steps S6, S7), and determines the need for information provision when these conditions are met, then activating an information providing device 9 to provide a driver with information simply by means of display (step S9) when the vehicle itself is travelling at relatively low speed or provide the driver with the information by means of both display and voice (step S10) when the vehicle itself is travelling at high speed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus that provides information on obstacles that are located around the host vehicle and that may affect traffic of other vehicles to other vehicles.

Conventionally, mutual communication between the host vehicle and the other vehicle is performed to obtain information on the position and vehicle speed of the other vehicle, and it is determined whether the other vehicle affects the traveling of the host vehicle. Other vehicles that have been determined to be given are highlighted on the display screen for providing information on the host vehicle (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In this way, by highlighting other vehicles that may affect the traveling of the host vehicle on the display screen, the driver is particularly careful when there are multiple other vehicles around the host vehicle. The position on the display screen of the other vehicle to be paid can be easily recognized, and information can be provided even for a vehicle that cannot be visually recognized by the driver.
JP 2002-117494 A

In the above conventional method, since information of each vehicle is exchanged by inter-vehicle communication, if a pedestrian is provided with a communication terminal or the like equipped with inter-vehicle communication means or position detecting means, Information about pedestrians around the host vehicle can also be provided. However, since it is necessary for the pedestrian to own a communication terminal, it is necessary to carry the communication terminal for each pedestrian in order to provide information regarding the pedestrian as an information provision target. Therefore, it is difficult to provide information about all pedestrians, and there is a travel support device that does not have a communication terminal and can provide information related to cautionary objects such as pedestrians. It was desired.
Therefore, the present invention has been made paying attention to the above-mentioned conventional unsolved problems, and can easily recognize even an obstacle such as a pedestrian that is difficult to recognize from the own vehicle. The object is to provide a driving support device.

In order to achieve the above object, the driving support apparatus according to the present invention detects an obstacle that one vehicle is expected to affect the traffic of another vehicle, and when this obstacle is detected, the obstacle is detected. Obstacle information about the object is transmitted to other vehicles by inter-vehicle communication.
The vehicle that has received the obstacle information provides the driver with the obstacle information as necessary.

  For example, even when there is an obstacle that cannot be recognized from another vehicle, when this obstacle is detected by one vehicle, information on this obstacle is transmitted to the other vehicle by inter-vehicle communication. Even if the driver of the other vehicle cannot actually recognize the obstacle, it is possible to indirectly recognize the presence of the obstacle.

  According to the driving support apparatus according to the present invention, the obstacle information related to the obstacle detected by one vehicle is notified to the other vehicle by inter-vehicle communication, and the other vehicle provides this obstacle information to the driver as necessary. Therefore, the driver of the other vehicle that has received the obstacle information can easily recognize the presence of the obstacle even if the obstacle cannot be actually visually recognized. Therefore, it is possible to cope with this obstacle in advance, and safety can be further improved.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a driving support device 100 to which the present invention is applied.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes inter-vehicle communication between the own vehicle and other vehicles around the own vehicle, travel information such as the current position of the vehicle and the motion state of the vehicle, and the surroundings of the own vehicle detected by each vehicle. The inter-vehicle communication unit 2 for exchanging vehicle information such as pedestrian information related to pedestrians, 2 specifies a current position of the own vehicle, and a navigation device capable of providing map information around the current position of the own vehicle The own vehicle position specifying device 3 is a vehicle movement state detection device that detects the movement state of the own vehicle such as a vehicle body speed and acceleration / deceleration, and 4 is a driver operation amount that detects a driver operation amount that is a driving operation amount by a driver. It is a detection unit. The driver operation amount detection unit 4 detects a driver operation amount such as an accelerator pedal operation amount, a brake pedal operation amount, a steering wheel steering amount, and the like as the driver operation amount.

  Reference numeral 5 denotes a pedestrian detection unit composed of a millimeter wave radar, a laser radar, an infrared camera, a CCD camera, and the like for detecting pedestrians around the own vehicle. It is a route map which holds this planned course when the planned course of a vehicle is inputted. The pedestrian detection unit 5 is provided in front of the host vehicle and behind the host vehicle, and is configured to be able to detect an object within a range of the lane width of the lane in which the host vehicle travels.

  The detection signals specified by these units are output to the information providing controller 10, and the information providing controller 10 detects the vehicle position specifying device 2, the vehicle motion state detecting device 3, and the driver operation amount detecting unit 4. The travel information indicating the travel status of the vehicle such as the current position of the host vehicle, the vehicle body speed, and various driver operation amounts is transmitted as vehicle information to other vehicles, and the pedestrian detection unit 5 detects pedestrians around the host vehicle. When it does, the pedestrian information which consists of this pedestrian's positional information is produced | generated, and it transmits to other vehicles as vehicle information with the said driving information.

  In addition, when travel information or pedestrian information is received as vehicle information from another vehicle, the travel status of other vehicles around the host vehicle is recognized based on the travel information of the other vehicle, and the pedestrian is based on the pedestrian information. The information providing device 9 is activated as necessary, and other vehicle information and pedestrian information around the host vehicle are provided to the driver by voice and display.

Next, the processing procedure of the arithmetic processing executed by the information providing controller 10 will be described based on the flowcharts of FIGS.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a processing procedure when pedestrian information is received.
First, in step S1, it is determined whether pedestrian information has been received. This determination determines whether or not pedestrian information is included in other vehicle information that is vehicle information from another vehicle received from another vehicle by inter-vehicle communication. As other vehicle information, in addition to the pedestrian information, the current position of the other vehicle, the vehicle body speed, and the driver's operation amount such as the steering angle of a steering wheel (not shown) are obtained.

And when not receiving other vehicle information by communication between vehicles, or when other vehicle information was received, but pedestrian information is not contained, a process is complete | finished as it is.
On the other hand, when the pedestrian information is included, the process proceeds to step S2, and it is determined whether the notified pedestrian affects the traffic of the own vehicle.
Specifically, the own vehicle calculated from the difference between the own vehicle position specified by the own vehicle position specifying device 2, the current position of the pedestrian notified as pedestrian information, and the current position and the past position of the own vehicle The traveling trajectory predicted that the vehicle and the pedestrian will proceed in the future will intersect in the future from the movement direction of the vehicle and the movement direction of the pedestrian calculated from the difference between the current position of the pedestrian and the past position. Determine if there is. And when it is in the situation where it crosses in the future, it judges that a pedestrian has influence on the passage of the own vehicle.

At this time, by referring to the steering angle of the own vehicle, the shape of the road, the course of the own vehicle held in the route map 6, etc., if there is a pedestrian at the end of the curve, Even when there is a pedestrian on another road that joins or branches off the road on which the vehicle is traveling, it is possible to accurately determine whether the pedestrian affects the traffic of the host vehicle.
Then, when it is determined that the pedestrian has no influence on the passage of the own vehicle, the process is terminated as it is, but when it is determined that the passage of the own vehicle is affected, the process proceeds to step S3.

In this step S3, an intersection position that indicates at which point the own vehicle and the pedestrian intersect is calculated. Specifically, from the traveling direction of the host vehicle, the predicted traveling trajectory calculated from the road shape, the course plan, the steering angle, etc., and the predicted walking trajectory of the pedestrian calculated from the traveling direction of the pedestrian The position where the two intersect is calculated, and this is set as the intersection position.
Next, the process proceeds to step S4, and a distance D from the own vehicle to the intersection position is calculated from the intersection position of the own vehicle and the pedestrian calculated in step S3 and the position coordinates of the own vehicle. Note that the distance here is not a linear distance between the two but a distance along the predicted road shape estimated from the navigation device or the route map.

Next, the process proceeds to step S5, and it is determined whether or not the own vehicle is in a relationship approaching a pedestrian. Specifically, the previous value D (k−1) of the distance between the host vehicle and the pedestrian is compared with the current distance D (k), and the distance D (k) is greater than the distance D (k−1). When it is small, it is determined that the host vehicle is in a relationship approaching the pedestrian, and the process proceeds to step S6.
Otherwise, the two are getting close to each other, and it is not necessary to provide information regarding this pedestrian, and the processing is terminated as it is.

Next, in step S6, the time required to reach the intersection position of the host vehicle and the pedestrian is calculated. Specifically, the distance from the current position of the host vehicle to the intersection position calculated in step S4 and the vehicle speed of the host vehicle detected by the vehicle motion state detection device 3 until the intersection position is reached. Calculate arrival time.
Next, the process proceeds to step S7, and it is determined whether or not the required arrival time calculated in step S6 is equal to or less than the threshold value T for the required arrival time. If the required arrival time exceeds the threshold value T, the process is terminated as it is not necessary to provide information regarding the pedestrian at this point. If the required arrival time is less than the threshold value T, The process proceeds to S8.

In step S8, it is determined whether the vehicle body speed of the host vehicle is equal to or lower than the threshold value V. When the vehicle body speed is less than or equal to the threshold value V, the process proceeds to step S9, where the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively low speed and there is sufficient time to deal with pedestrians. 9 is provided, and information on pedestrians is provided only by display. Then, the process ends.
On the other hand, if the vehicle body speed exceeds the threshold value V in step S8, the process proceeds to step S10, and the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively high speed, so that deceleration is necessary, and the information providing device 9 is activated. Information on pedestrians is provided not only by display but also by voice. Then, the process ends.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a processing procedure when transmitting pedestrian information.
First, in step S11, it is determined whether or not the vehicle body speed detected by the vehicle motion state detection device 3 is equal to or less than the threshold value Vs. When the threshold value Vs is exceeded, it is assumed that the host vehicle is traveling at a certain speed, and there is no possibility that a pedestrian exists around the host vehicle traveling at a certain speed or more. The process ends.

  On the other hand, when the vehicle body speed is equal to or lower than the threshold value Vs, it is assumed that the host vehicle is traveling at a very low speed or is stopped, and there is a possibility that there is a pedestrian around the host vehicle. The process proceeds to S12. In this step S12, it is determined whether the pedestrian detection unit 5 has detected any obstacles in front of and behind the host vehicle. If no obstacle is detected, the process is terminated. If an obstacle is detected, the position and shape of the detected obstacle are recorded.

  Then, the process proceeds to step S13, and it is determined whether or not the obstacle detected in step S12 is a moving object. Specifically, when an object similar to the rough position and shape of the object detected in step S12 when viewed from the host vehicle has a change in position compared to the previous detection state, It is determined that the object is a moving object. And it is judged that this moving object has a high possibility of being a pedestrian.

  When the obstacle is not a moving object, it is determined that the obstacle is not a pedestrian and the process is terminated. However, it is estimated that the obstacle is a moving object and is likely to be a pedestrian. Sometimes, the process proceeds to step S14. In this step S14, it is determined whether the obstacle is moving in the left or right direction when viewed from the own vehicle. When the obstacle is an object that moves in the right direction when viewed from the own vehicle, the object is moving to the center of the roadway, that is, it is composed of two lanes, a lane on which the own vehicle runs and an opposite lane. It is an obstacle that moves to the right from the surroundings of the vehicle on the roadway, that is, moves to the center of the roadway and eventually enters the oncoming lane, and is likely to affect the traffic of other vehicles traveling on the oncoming lane As shown in FIG.

On the other hand, in the case where the obstacle moves to the left side when viewed from the own vehicle in step S14, the vehicle moves in the direction of moving outside the roadway, such as when the vehicle has crossed the lane of the own vehicle, Since it is considered that the possibility of affecting is low, it is assumed that there is no need to provide information regarding the obstacle, and the processing is terminated as it is.
In step S15, the current position of the obstacle is calculated. Specifically, the current position of the obstacle is calculated from the current position of the own vehicle detected by the own vehicle position specifying device 2 and the relative position of the obstacle with respect to the own vehicle detected by the pedestrian detection unit 5.

  Next, the process proceeds to step S16, and the position of the obstacle calculated in step S15, that is, the position information of the obstacle estimated to be a pedestrian is used as pedestrian information. Then, this pedestrian information, the current position of the own vehicle specified by the own vehicle position specifying device 2, the vehicle speed of the own vehicle detected by the vehicle motion information detecting device 3, and the driver operation amount detecting unit 4 The travel information such as the operation amount of the driver is transmitted as vehicle information to another vehicle via the inter-vehicle communication unit 1. Then, the process ends.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described.
Each vehicle provided with the driving support device 100 performs the calculation processing of FIGS. 2 and 3 to detect the position and movement state of the own vehicle, the operation amount of the driver, etc., and generate the driving information. The presence or absence of a pedestrian is detected, and traveling information and pedestrian information are transmitted as vehicle information by inter-vehicle communication.

Further, vehicle information from other vehicles is received by inter-vehicle communication, the positional relationship between the own vehicle and the other vehicle is specified based on the current position information of the own vehicle and the other vehicle, and the information providing device 9 is operated. Based on the map information obtained from the navigation device or the like, the positional relationship between the host vehicle and the other vehicle is displayed on a map around the host vehicle.
Moreover, when pedestrian information is received from another vehicle, the information provision apparatus 9 is operated and information on the presence of a pedestrian is provided to the driver as necessary.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, in a road composed of two lanes, a lane in which the vehicle A travels and an opposite lane in which the vehicle B travels, the lane on the vehicle B side is relatively congested, and the lane on the vehicle A side It is assumed that there is a pedestrian C who is going to cross the road from the vehicle B side to the vehicle A side in front of the vehicle B while the vehicle is traveling relatively smoothly.

  In the vehicle B, when the calculation process at the time of pedestrian information transmission shown in FIG. 3 is performed, the lane on the vehicle B side is congested and traveling at an extremely low speed. At this time, the pedestrian detection unit 5 detects the pedestrian C as an obstacle, and the pedestrian C is moving in order to cross the road, from the vehicle B side to the lane on the vehicle A side. It is estimated that the obstacle is a pedestrian because it is moving toward the vehicle, that is, an obstacle moving rightward as viewed from the vehicle B (steps S13 and S14).

Then, the current position of the pedestrian C is estimated based on the obstacle detected with respect to the vehicle B detected by the pedestrian detection unit 5, that is, the relative position of the pedestrian C and the current position of the vehicle B. Then, the traveling information of the vehicle B and the pedestrian information related to the pedestrian C are transmitted as vehicle information of the vehicle B by inter-vehicle communication (steps S15 and S16).
On the other hand, in the vehicle A, since the vehicle information including the pedestrian information is received from the vehicle B, when the calculation process when receiving the pedestrian information shown in FIG. 2 is performed, the process proceeds from step S1 to step S2. Then, it is determined whether the pedestrian notified as the pedestrian information is a pedestrian that affects traffic of the own vehicle. In the case of FIG. 4, since the traveling trajectory predicted from the moving direction of the pedestrian C and the traveling trajectory predicted from the moving direction of the vehicle A intersect, the pedestrian C affects the traffic of the own vehicle A. Determination is made, the process proceeds to step S3, the predicted intersection position between the vehicle A and the pedestrian C is estimated, and the distance D from the vehicle A to the intersection position is calculated.

In the case of FIG. 4, the pedestrian C is moving to the travel lane side of the vehicle A, and the vehicle A is also traveling, and the distance D between these gradually decreases. And the time required for the vehicle A to reach the crossing position is calculated (step S4 to step S6).
When the vehicle A exists at a position relatively close to the intersection and the required time is less than the threshold value T, the process proceeds from step S7 to step S8. At this time, the vehicle A travels at a relatively low speed. If yes, the process proceeds to step S9, and the information providing device 9 provides information on the presence of the pedestrian C by display. On the other hand, when the vehicle A is traveling at a relatively high speed, the process proceeds from step S8 to step S10, and the information providing device 9 provides information regarding the presence of the pedestrian C by display and sound.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, when the lane on the vehicle B side is congested, even if there is a pedestrian C trying to cross the road ahead of the vehicle B, the vehicle A The pedestrian C cannot be visually recognized due to the influence of the pedestrian, and the pedestrian C is recognized only when the pedestrian C reaches the vicinity of the traveling lane of the vehicle A. The pedestrian C is recognized only when the pedestrian C jumps out ahead of the course of the vehicle A.

  However, as described above, when the pedestrian C is detected by the vehicle B and it is determined that the vehicle is a pedestrian that affects the traffic of the vehicle A, the pedestrian information related to the pedestrian C is transmitted to the other vehicle. Since the transmission is performed, the vehicle A recognizes the presence of the pedestrian C at the time when the pedestrian information is received even if the vehicle A is in a positional relationship where the pedestrian C cannot be visually recognized. be able to.

  Therefore, since the driver of the vehicle A can recognize the presence of the pedestrian C that may affect the traffic of the vehicle A before actually visually recognizing the pedestrian C, The pedestrian C can be recognized before jumping into the lane of the vehicle, and before the pedestrian C jumps into the driving lane of the vehicle A, the pedestrian C that may affect the traffic of the vehicle A, Appropriate measures can be taken.

  At this time, since the pedestrian is detected on the vehicle side on which the driving support device 100 is mounted, it is not necessary for the pedestrian to send the position information, and the driving support device 100 is mounted. If it is a pedestrian that can be detected by a vehicle, information about the pedestrian such as its position information can be obtained. Therefore, it is possible to easily obtain information on more objects around the host vehicle as compared with the conventional case where a communication terminal is provided for each object that needs attention.

  At this time, when the vehicle A is traveling at a relatively low speed, the information providing apparatus 9 provides information only by display, but the vehicle A is traveling at a relatively high speed. In this case, since information is provided not only by display but also by sound, information can be provided accurately and reliably according to the degree of necessity of recognizing the presence of the pedestrian C.

  Further, for example, when the vehicle A is stopped, the distance D from the vehicle A to the intersection position is equal to the previous value, and for example, the vehicle A is traveling in front of the vehicle B in the same direction. If the vehicle A is traveling backward in the backward direction of the vehicle B, the distance D from the vehicle A to the intersection position is longer than the previous value, so the processing is performed as it is from step S5. Information about the pedestrian C is not provided. Therefore, unnecessary information provision regarding a pedestrian who does not need to provide information that tends to move away from the vehicle A is not performed.

  Further, in the vehicle B, it can be determined that the object moving to the other lane side around the host vehicle is a pedestrian, and the pedestrian is moving in a direction that affects the passage of other vehicles. Since the information about the obstacle is transmitted as pedestrian information at the time when it is predicted that it avoids unnecessary transmission of information about pedestrians that do not affect other vehicles, Only the information necessary for the other vehicle can be transmitted, and only the truly necessary pedestrian information can be notified to the other vehicle side.

  Further, in the vehicle A on the side of receiving the pedestrian information, whether the received pedestrian information is information that needs to be provided to the driver, whether the vehicle is approaching the own vehicle, Since it is determined according to the time required to reach the intersection, etc., and information is provided only when it is determined that the information needs to be provided, unnecessary pedestrian information is provided to the driver. Can be avoided.

At this time, since the position information indicating the current position of the pedestrian is notified as the pedestrian information, the vehicle that has received the pedestrian information is notified as the current position of the vehicle and the pedestrian information. From the position information of the pedestrian, the moving direction of the pedestrian, the intersection position between the pedestrian and the host vehicle, and the like can be easily detected.
Further, the pedestrian detection unit 5 detects an obstacle within the range of about the traveling lane width of the own vehicle, and when this is in the other lane side, that is, in the case of two lanes, when moving to the center side of the roadway In addition, since it is recognized that it is a pedestrian, for example, a pedestrian who has finished crossing or a pedestrian who is walking on a sidewalk, etc., which has a low possibility of affecting the traffic of the vehicle It is possible to avoid recognizing a person and to provide unnecessary pedestrian information.

In the above embodiment, when the obstacle detected by the vehicle B is a pedestrian, the information about the pedestrian is transmitted. However, the present invention is not limited to the pedestrian. It is also possible to detect a bicycle, a motorcycle, etc. and transmit it.
Moreover, in the said embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, although demonstrated about the case where the roadway which consists of two lanes of one side lane was demonstrated, it applies, for example, when crossing the road more than two lanes etc. In this case, if an obstacle moves to the right or left opposite lane adjacent to the lane of the host vehicle or the lane side in the same direction as the host vehicle, this may affect the traffic of other vehicles. What is necessary is just to determine with a thing.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the case where each vehicle was provided with the function to perform the process at the time of transmitting the pedestrian information shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3 and the process at the time of receiving was demonstrated, it is not necessarily both It is not necessary to have, and it is also possible to have a configuration having only one of them.
In the above embodiment, the pedestrian detection unit 5 corresponds to the obstacle detection unit, the inter-vehicle communication unit 1 and the processes of steps S15 and S16 in FIG. The device 2 corresponds to the own vehicle position detecting means, the inter-vehicle communication unit 1 and the processing of step S1 in FIG. 2 correspond to the obstacle information receiving means, the company position specifying device 2, the vehicle motion state detecting device 3, and the driver operation amount. The detection unit 4 corresponds to the traveling state detection means, and the information providing device 9 and the processing from step S2 to step S10 in FIG. 2 correspond to the information providing means.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows an example of the driving assistance apparatus 100 in this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the arithmetic processing at the time of the pedestrian information reception performed with the information provision controller of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the arithmetic processing at the time of the pedestrian information transmission performed with the information provision controller of FIG. It is explanatory drawing with which it uses for operation | movement description of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inter-vehicle communication part 2 Own vehicle position identification apparatus 3 Vehicle movement state detection apparatus 4 Driver operation amount detection part 5 Pedestrian detection part 6 Route map 9 Information provision apparatus 10 Information provision controller 100 Driving support apparatus

Claims (11)

A driving support device configured to perform inter-vehicle communication between vehicles,
One vehicle detects an obstacle that is predicted to affect the traffic of another vehicle, and transmits obstacle information related to the obstacle through the inter-vehicle communication.
The vehicle that has received the obstacle information provides the driver with the obstacle information as necessary. A driving support device configured to perform inter-vehicle communication between vehicles,
One vehicle detects obstacles that are predicted to affect the traffic of other vehicles, and obstacle information transmission that transmits obstacle information detected by the obstacle detection means through the inter-vehicle communication. Means, and
The vehicle on the obstacle information receiving side includes obstacle information receiving means for receiving the obstacle information through the inter-vehicle communication,
A traveling state detecting means for detecting the traveling state of the host vehicle;
When the obstacle information is received, information providing means for providing the obstacle information to the driver as necessary based on the obstacle information and the running situation detected by the running situation detecting means is provided. A driving support device. A driving support device configured to perform inter-vehicle communication between vehicles,
Obstacle detection means for detecting obstacles that are predicted to affect traffic of other vehicles;
An obstacle information transmitting means for transmitting obstacle information detected by the obstacle detecting means by means of the inter-vehicle communication. A host vehicle position detecting means for detecting the current position of the host vehicle;
The obstacle information transmitting means specifies the current position of the obstacle detected by the obstacle detection means based on the position information detected by the own vehicle position detection means, and the position information of the specified obstacle is the obstacle information. The driving support device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the driving support device is included in the transmission.   3. The obstacle detection unit is configured to recognize an object that exists in a preset range with respect to a traveling lane of the host vehicle and moves to another lane as a pedestrian. The driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A driving support device configured to perform inter-vehicle communication between vehicles,
Obstacle information receiving means for receiving obstacle information relating to obstacles detected by other vehicles by means of inter-vehicle communication;
A traveling state detecting means for detecting the traveling state of the host vehicle;
An information providing means for providing information to the driver based on the obstacle information and the driving condition detected by the driving condition detecting means when the obstacle information is received by the inter-vehicle communication. Support device. The obstacle information receiving means receives obstacle information including position information of the obstacle,
The traveling state detection means detects position information representing the current position of the host vehicle as the traveling state,
The information providing means determines the necessity of providing information related to the obstacle based on the position information of the obstacle received as the obstacle information and the position information of the host vehicle detected by the traveling state detecting means, and provides the information The travel support apparatus according to claim 2 or 6, wherein the obstacle information is provided only when there is a need for the obstacle.   8. The travel support apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information providing means determines that information needs to be provided when the obstacle and the host vehicle are in a close relationship.   9. The driving support according to claim 7, wherein the information providing means determines that there is no need to provide information when the obstacle and the host vehicle are in a distance relationship. apparatus.   The information providing means predicts a point where the vehicle and the predicted traveling trajectory of the obstacle intersect, and the time required for the vehicle to reach the predicted point is equal to or less than a preset threshold value. The travel support apparatus according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the presence or absence of necessity of providing information is sometimes determined.   11. The travel support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information providing unit provides information to a driver by voice and display.

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