Driving assistance apparatus

A driving assistance apparatus, comprising:

• a driving assister that assists driving by a driver of a vehicle, by way of driving assistance functions;
• a controller that obtains inattentive state information indicating an inattentive state of the driver, and reduces or deactivates at least one driving assistance function among the driving assistance functions, by controlling the driving assister based on the inattentive state information obtained;
• and
• an attentiveness state detector that detects the inattentive state of the driver, and outputs the inattentive state information indicating the inattentive state detected,
• wherein, when the attentiveness state detector distinguishes between an attentive state in which the driver is paying attention and the inattentive state in which the driver is not paying attention, the attentiveness state detector detects, as the inattentive state, a state in which a degree of awareness of the driver is less than or equal to a specified value or a state in which the driver is not paying attention to a front of the vehicle,
• the driving assistance functions include at least one highly visible driving assistance function which is highly visible to the driver and other driving assistance functions different from the at least one highly visible driving assistance function, and
• when the degree of awareness is less than or equal to the specified value as the inattentive state, the controller reduces or deactivates the at least one highly visible driving assistance function first, and after controlling the highly visible driving support function, the controller reduces or deactivates a greater number of the other driving assistance functions as the degree of awareness is lower.