Leading vehicle identification system

A leading vehicle identification system for identifying a leading vehicle traveling in front of a following vehicle configured to move autonomously, comprising:

• a portable information generation terminal having a wireless communication function and configured to generate following target information about a movement of the leading vehicle in a state where the information generation terminal is carried by the leading vehicle;
• a communication unit included in the following vehicle and configured to receive the following target information sent from the information generation terminal via wireless communication with the information generation terminal;
• and
• a following control unit included in the following vehicle and configured to determine a position of the leading vehicle traveling in front of the following vehicle based on the following target information,
• wherein the leading vehicle identification system further comprises an optical measurement unit included in the following vehicle and configured to detect one or plural objects present in a moving direction of the following vehicle and thereby generate object detection information about each of the objects,
• wherein the following control unit is configured to determine the position of the leading vehicle based on the object detection information,
• wherein the following control unit is configured to determine the position of the leading vehicle by calculating a weighted average of a first position of the leading vehicle estimated based on the following target information and a second position of the leading vehicle estimated based on the object detection information,
• wherein in a case where a distance between the first position and the second position is equal to or greater than a prescribed threshold value, the following control unit determines the first position as the position of the leading vehicle regardless of the weighted average.