Driving assistance apparatus

A driving assistance apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of sensor devices that is mounted in a host vehicle and is configured to acquire host vehicle information including a parameter representing a traveling state of the host vehicle and object information including a relative position of an object being present around the host vehicle with respect to the host vehicle, a traveling direction of the object, and a speed of the object;
• and
• at least one electronic control unit configured to
• determine, based on the host vehicle information, whether or not the host vehicle is traveling straight,
• when the electronic control unit determines that the host vehicle is traveling straight, estimate a linear path of a finite length extending in the traveling direction of the host vehicle from the host vehicle as an expected path based on the host vehicle information,
• determine, based on the object information, whether or not a target object that is an object having a possibility of crossing the expected path within a threshold time period is present,
• determine whether or not a traffic situation that is estimated to hinder traveling of the target object occurs,
• generate a driving assistance request signal when the electronic control unit determines that the target object is present and that the traffic situation does not occur, and forbid generation of the driving assistance request signal when the electronic control unit determines that the target object is present and that the traffic situation occurs, and
• execute, in response to generation of the driving assistance request signal, driving assistance of at least one of attention calling assistance and automatic braking assistance, the attention calling assistance calling attention of a driver to the target object, and the automatic braking assistance automatically braking the host vehicle.