Vehicle headlight control device, vehicle headlight control method, non-transitory storage medium

A vehicle headlight control method, comprising:

• irradiating light ahead of an own vehicle by a headlight configured to adjust a quantity of light irradiated to each irradiation region into which an irradiation range of light is sectioned;
• capturing an image ahead of the own vehicle by an image-capturing device;
• acquiring, by a processor, an indicator value that represents a brightness of an object detected ahead of the own vehicle based on the image captured by the image-capturing device when light is irradiated by the headlight;
• estimating a gaze area of a driver by the processor;
• setting, by the processor, a reference value to a first reference value when the object is detected within the gaze area;
• setting, by the processor, the reference value to a second reference value that is greater than the first reference value when the object is detected outside of the gaze area;
• and
• controlling, by the processor, a light distribution of the headlight such that the quantity of light irradiate to the irradiation region where a dimming target object is present is reduced when the dimming target object is detected, the dimming target object being an object of which the indicator value is greater than the reference value.

A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that are executable by one or more processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform functions comprising:

• acquiring an indicator value that represents a brightness of an object detected ahead of an own vehicle based on an image captured by an image-capturing device when light is irradiated by a headlight;
• estimating a gaze area of a driver;
• setting a reference value to a first reference value, when the object is detected within the gaze area;
• setting the reference value to a second reference value that is greater than the first reference value, when the object is detected outside of the gaze area;
• and
• controlling a light distribution of the headlight such that a quantity of light irradiated to an irradiation region where a dimming target object is present is reduced when the dimming target object is detected, the dimming target object being an object of which the indicator value is greater than the reference value.