Assist apparatus for assisting user to get out of vehicle

An assist apparatus for assisting a user of a vehicle to get out of said vehicle, said assist apparatus comprising:

• a door drive device configured to perform door opening operation for opening a door automatically, wherein said door is configured to open and close a door opening part formed in a body of said vehicle, and wherein said user gets in said vehicle through the door opening part and gets out of said vehicle through the door opening part;
• an operation detection device configured to detect a user's door opening request operation performed by said user for opening said door in a case where said door is at a fully closed position to fully close said door opening part;
• an information acquisition device configured to obtain peripheral object information on an object present in a peripheral area of said vehicle;
• and
• a control unit configured to control said door drive device,
• wherein,
• said control unit is configured to:
• determine, based on said peripheral object information, whether or not an attention-required object to which said user should pay attention is present in a case where said user gets out of said vehicle through said door opening part;
• perform a door opening operation process to cause said door drive device to perform said door opening operation based upon a determination that said attention-required object is not present in a case where said user's door opening request operation has been detected;
• perform a door opening operation restriction process to hold said door at said fully closed position based upon a determination that said attention-required object is present in a case where said user's door opening request operation has been detected;
• and
• perform said door opening operation process in place of said door opening operation restriction process even based upon a determination that said attention-required object is present in a case where said user's door opening request operation is detected after said door opening operation restriction process has been successively performed a predetermined number of times.