Drive assist apparatus

A driving assistance apparatus for a host vehicle comprising:

• a navigation system including a global positioning system (GPS) that receives a position of the host vehicle and a route setting unit that sets a target route on which the host vehicle travels to reach a destination set by a driver of the host vehicle based on the position of the host vehicle and a map information in a map database;
• a surroundings monitoring sensor that acquires surrounding information of the host vehicle;
• a vehicle control unit programmed to:
• generate a travel path plan of the host vehicle based on the target route, the position of the host vehicle, and the surrounding information acquired by the surroundings monitoring sensor;
• cause the vehicle to autonomously drive in an autonomous driving mode based on the generated path plan;
• a driving mode switching electronic control unit programmed to:
• determine, during the autonomous driving mode, whether a switching completion point to switch a driving mode from the autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode is on the target route or not, based on A) the target route, B) the map information, and C) a traffic regulation information;
• calculate, in response to the determination, an arrival window time indicating an amount of time until the host vehicle will arrive at the switching completion point, based on the switching completion point, a host vehicle data, and the position of the host vehicle;
• determine whether or not the arrival window time is equal to or less than a predetermined time;
• and
• instruct the vehicle control unit, in response to the determination that the arrival window time is equal to or less than the predetermined time, to cause the host vehicle to drive in a cooperative driving mode, wherein the driving mode switching unit is further programmed to provide stimulation to the driver of the host vehicle, from start to completion of the drive mode switching from autonomous driving to manual driving, wherein the driving mode switching unit is further programmed to:
• estimate a return time, wherein the return time is a time required for a state of the driver to be returned to a state suitable for the manual driving, and
• change how the stimulation is provided based on whether the return time is estimated to be larger or smaller than a predetermined return time.