Driver assistance apparatus, driver assistance method, and non-transitory recording medium

A driver assistance method of assisting driving of a vehicle, the driver assistance method comprising:

• acquiring at least recognition area information and measurement result information from one or more environment recognizers outside the vehicle;
• when the one or more environment recognizers have detected a mobile body in an overlapping region between a blind spot area of the vehicle and a recognition area of the one or more environment recognizers, superimposing the recognition area information and information on the mobile body on map data, real space, or a captured image of the real space;
• when the one or more environment recognizers have detected no mobile body in the overlapping region, determining whether a mobile body possibly present on a second traveling road is likely to enter a merging point between a first traveling road on which the vehicle travels and the second traveling road merging into the first traveling road from an outside of the overlapping region at a time when the vehicle reaches the merging point;
• and
• refraining from superimposing the recognition area information on the map data, the real space, or the captured image of the real space when the mobile body possibly present on the second traveling road is determined to be likely to enter the merging point.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium containing a computer program to be applied to a driver assistance apparatus, the driver assistance apparatus being configured to assist driving of a vehicle, the computer program causing, when executed by one or more processors, the one or more processors to implement a method, the method comprising:

• acquiring at least recognition area information and measurement result information from one or more environment recognizers outside the vehicle;
• when the one or more environment recognizers have detected a mobile body in an overlapping region between a blind spot area of the vehicle and a recognition area of the one or more environment recognizers, superimposing the recognition area information and information on the mobile body on map data, real space, or a captured image of the real space;
• when the one or more environment recognizers have detected no mobile body in the overlapping region, determining whether a mobile body possibly present on a second traveling road is likely to enter a merging point between a first traveling road on which the vehicle travels and the second traveling road merging into the first traveling road from an outside of the overlapping region at a time when the vehicle reaches the merging point;
• and
• refraining from superimposing the recognition area information on the map data, the real space, or the captured image of the real space when the mobile body possibly present on the second traveling road is determined to be likely to enter the merging point.