Vehicle speed management apparatus and vehicle speed management method

A vehicle speed management apparatus that manages a vehicle speed in a host vehicle, the host vehicle including an emergency control unit and an information presentation unit,

• the emergency control unit providing an operation in order to reduce or avoid collision damage to a preceding obstacle,
• the information presentation unit presenting information,
• the vehicle speed management apparatus comprising:
• at least one processor that includes
• a scene information acquisition section that acquires scene information about a driving scene of the host vehicle driven by a user,
• a scene estimation section that estimates the driving scene based on the scene information acquired by the scene information acquisition section,
• a behavior information acquisition section that acquires behavior information about a driving behavior of the host vehicle driven by the user,
• a risk determination section that determines a driving risk of the host vehicle driven by the user, based on the driving scene estimated by the scene estimation section and on the behavior information acquired by the behavior information acquisition section, and
• an information presentation control section that controls a presentation of assist information by the information presentation unit in order to prompt the user to address the driving risk,
• wherein
• when the driving scene estimated by the scene estimation section represents an independent traveling state of the host vehicle, the information presentation control section selects, based on a magnitude of the driving risk determined by the risk determination section, the assist information to be presented by the information presentation unit before the operation by the emergency control unit, wherein:
• the assist information responding to the driving risk identified as a low risk is reference information that causes the user to recognize the driving risk, the driving risk that the user refers to in determining the driving behavior;
• the assist information responding to the driving risk identified as a medium risk is suggestion information that suggests to the user the driving behavior to suppress an increase in the driving risk, the medium risk being higher than the low risk;
• the assist information responding to the driving risk identified as a high risk is request information that requests the user to perform the driving behavior to reduce the driving risk, the high risk being higher than the medium risk;
• and
• the information presentation control section selects the reference information, the suggestion information, or the request information as the assist information responding to the driving risk determined by the risk determination section, wherein:
• when the driving risk determined by the risk determination section is the low risk, the information presentation control section causes the information presentation unit to provide visual presentation of the reference information selected as the assist information;
• when the driving risk determined by the risk determination section is the medium risk, the information presentation control section causes the information presentation unit to provide visual and audible presentation of the suggestion information selected as the assist information;
• and
• when the driving risk determined by the risk determination section is the high risk, the information presentation control section causes the information presentation unit to provide visual, audible, and haptic presentation of the request information selected as the assist information.