Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus And Inter-Vehicular Control Apparatus Using Leading Vehicle Detecting Apparatus

A leading vehicle detecting apparatus, wherein the leading vehicle detecting apparatus may be mounted in a vehicle and judges therein whether or not an own vehicle is traveling such as to follow a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle in a same traffic lane, including:

• a signal acquiring section that acquires both a position signal outputted from a position detecting section which detects a position of the preceding vehicle and a detected signal outputted from a state detecting section which detects a state of a present cruising line in which the own vehicle is traveling;
• a storage section that stores in advance a probability map that assigns a probability regarding whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of a distance from an expected cruising line of the own vehicle and the position of the leading vehicle;
• and
• a calculating section that calculates the expected cruising line on the basis of the detection signal, and judges whether or not the own vehicle is following the leading vehicle on the basis of the calculated expected cruising line, the position signal, and the probability map.