Vehicle control apparatus and operating method thereof

A vehicle control apparatus controlling autonomous driving of a vehicle based on a vehicle external object, the apparatus comprising:

• a controller connected to at least one processor configured to control entry into a caution mode, based on driving environment information and operating mode information;
• an object detector connected to the at least one processor configured to perform primary object detection based on a vehicle external image to obtain first object information, and to perform secondary object detection based on a ghost-removal image to output second object information, in the caution mode;
• a reflective area setter connected to the at least one processor configured to set a first reflective area for reflection light based on the first object information, in the caution mode;
• a reflective image remover connected to the at least one processor configured to generate the ghost-removal image, in which a reflective image inside a first reflective area is removed from the vehicle external image, based on pixel values inside the first reflective area;
• a reliability determinator connected to the at least one processor configured to determine reliability of the second object information based on the second object information and information about the reflective image;
• and
• a vehicle controller connected to the at least one processor configured to control the autonomous driving of the vehicle based on the second object information when the reliability of the second object information is higher than a setting value,
• wherein the obtained first object information includes:
• a light source from the first vehicle external image;
• and
• at least one of location information, size information, brightness information, and color information of the light source,
• wherein the first reflective area includes:
• a road horizontal line from the first vehicle external image;
• a horizontal location of the first reflective area corresponding to an intersection point between a center line of the light source and the road horizontal line;
• a width of the first reflective area proportional to a width of the light source, based on the first object information;
• and
• a length of the first reflective area extending in a first direction from the road horizontal line, and
• wherein the first direction is a y-axis direction perpendicular to the road horizontal line,
• wherein the outputted second object information includes:
• calculating the pixel values inside the first reflective area;
• generating a cluster corresponding to the reflective image based on the pixel values;
• setting a second reflective area included in the first reflective area, based on the cluster;
• and
• removing the cluster within the second reflective area.