Vehicle external environment recognition apparatus

A vehicle external environment recognition apparatus to be applied to a vehicle, the vehicle external environment recognition apparatus comprising:

• a position calculation processor configured to calculate three-dimensional positions of respective blocks in a captured image;
• a three-dimensional object determination processor configured to group the blocks to put any two or more of the blocks that have the three-dimensional positions differing from each other within a predetermined range in a group and thereby determine three-dimensional objects;
• an identification object identifying processor configured to identify a preceding vehicle, which is moving, relative to the vehicle and a sidewall on a basis of the three-dimensional objects;
• a vehicle tracking processor configured to
• estimate a future position of the preceding vehicle to track the preceding vehicle identified by the identification object identifying processor,
• perform a following operation to cause the vehicle to follow the preceding vehicle being tracked;
• determine whether or not the preceding vehicle corresponds to a portion of the sidewall, and
• based on determining that the preceding vehicle corresponds to the portion of the sidewall, stop tracking the preceding vehicle, which is moving.