Lane keep control apparatus

A lane keep control apparatus comprising:

• an acquiring unit configured to acquire traveling environment information that represents a traveling environment ahead of an own vehicle;
• a first extractor configured to extract preceding vehicle information from the traveling environment information acquired by the acquiring unit, the preceding vehicle information being information on a preceding vehicle that travels ahead of the own vehicle;
• a second extractor configured to extract lane line information from the traveling environment information acquired by the acquiring unit, the lane line information being information on a pair of lane lines that define right and left of a traveling lane along which the own vehicle travels;
• and
• a first calculator configured to determine a lane width of the traveling lane on a basis of the lane line information extracted by the second extractor, and calculate a target traveling course, the target traveling course being configured to cause the own vehicle to travel along a predetermined lateral position in the lane width,
• the first calculator including
• a first determiner configured to determine whether the preceding vehicle travels on the traveling lane, on a basis of the preceding vehicle information extracted by the first extractor,
• a second determiner configured to determine, when the first determiner determines that the preceding vehicle travels on the traveling lane, whether a blinker of the preceding vehicle blinks, on a basis of the traveling environment information acquired by the acquiring unit,
• a third determiner configured to determine whether one of the pair of lane lines changes a direction to be away from another one of the pair of lane line so that the lane width of the traveling lane becomes wider, and
• a second calculator configured to set, when the blinker of the preceding vehicle is blinking and the direction of the one of the pair of lane line is toward a direction indicated by the blinker, the target traveling course on a basis of, as a reference, only the another one of the pair of lane lines.