Vehicle head light control apparatus

A vehicle head light control apparatus comprising:

• a headlight including a lighting apparatus configured to irradiate an irradiation region in front of a vehicle, said irradiation region being a set of irradiation sections adjacent to each other, and configured to vary irradiation quantity for each of said irradiation sections, said irradiation quantity being a lighting amount given to said irradiation section;
• a sensor device configured to detect, as an irradiation avoidance object, an object that is present in said irradiation region and that should is not be irradiated by said lighting apparatus;
• and
• a control unit implemented by at least one programmed processor and configured to:
• determine whether or not a predetermined irradiation condition is satisfied;
• execute a basic irradiation processing for adjusting an irradiation state such that each of said irradiation quantities is equal to a predetermined standard irradiation quantity when said irradiation condition is satisfied and said irradiation avoidance object is not detected;
• and
• execute, when said irradiation condition is satisfied and said irradiation avoidance object is detected, a dazzlement avoidance processing for adjusting said irradiation state to achieve an irradiation avoidance state where said irradiation quantity of said irradiation section overlapping with said irradiation avoidance object is equal to a predetermined lower limit irradiation quantity which is lower than said standard irradiation quantity;
• wherein
• said control unit is configured to:
• determine whether a driving state of said vehicle is a manual driving state or an autonomous driving state, said manual driving state being a state where a travelling state of said vehicle is controlled in accordance with driving operation by a driver of said vehicle, and said autonomous driving state being a state where said travelling state is controlled without said driving operation;
• execute, as said dazzlement avoidance processing, a processing for achieving a first state when said driving state is said manual driving state, said first state being a state where both said irradiation avoidance state and a first specific state are realized, said first specific state being a state where said irradiation quantities of said irradiation sections included in a wide adjacent region decreases within a range from said lower limit irradiation quantity to said standard irradiation quantity, as a boundary distance becomes smaller, said boundary distance being a shortest distance from an outer periphery of an irradiation avoidance region that is a set of said irradiation sections overlapping with said irradiation avoidance object, said wide adjacent region being a region that is within said irradiation region under said irradiation avoidance state, adjacent to said irradiation avoidance region and has said boundary distances smaller than a predetermined first distance;
• and
• execute, as said dazzlement avoidance processing, a processing for achieving a second state when said driving state is said autonomous driving state, said second state being one of a state where said irradiation avoidance state is realized and a state where both said irradiation avoidance state and a second specific state are realized, said second specific state being a state where said irradiation quantities of said irradiation sections included in a narrow adjacent region decreases within a range from said lower limit irradiation quantity to said standard irradiation quantity, as said boundary distance becomes smaller, said narrow adjacent region being a region that is within said irradiation region under said irradiation avoidance state, adjacent to said irradiation avoidance region,
• and has said boundary distances smaller than a predetermined second distance which is smaller than said first distance.