Parking Assistance Method and Parking Assistance Device

A parking assistance method for a parking assistance device that is capable of detecting an empty parking space around a host vehicle and is capable of displaying a surrounding image that is a view of an area including the host vehicle from above with a second assistance icon superimposed on the surrounding image, wherein the second assistance icon indicates that the empty parking space has been detected and is superimposed at a position different from the position of the empty parking space in the surrounding image, and wherein the parking assistance method comprises:

• detecting the empty parking space from the surrounding image;
• determining whether the host vehicle has been stopped since detecting the empty parking space from the surrounding image;
• determining, based on whether the host vehicle has been stopped, whether to display the surrounding image on which the second assistance icon is superimposed after detecting the empty parking space from the surrounding image;
• when determining that the host vehicle has not been stopped, displaying the surrounding image on which the second assistance icon is superimposed;
• and
• when determining that the host vehicle has been stopped and when an occupant of the host vehicle selects via an input interface a desired empty parking space, setting a target parking position to the empty parking space selected by the occupant, generating a parking trajectory from a parking start position to the target parking position, and starting an automatic parking control along the generated parking trajectory.

A parking assistance device comprising:

• a controller configured to:
• detect an empty parking space around a host vehicle from a surrounding image that is a view of an area including the host vehicle from above;
• determine whether the host vehicle has been stopped since detecting the empty parking space from the surrounding image;
• determine, based on whether the host vehicle has been stopped, whether or not to display the surrounding image on which a first assistance icon indicating the empty parking space is superimposed at a position of the empty parking space in the surrounding image after detecting the empty parking space from the surrounding image;
• when determining that the host vehicle has been stopped, display the surrounding image on which the first assistance icon is superimposed;
• and
• when an occupant of the host vehicle selects via an input interface the empty parking space indicated by the first assistance icon while the surrounding image on which the first assistance icon is superimposed is displayed, set a target parking position to the empty parking space selected by the occupant, generate a parking trajectory from a parking start position to the target parking position, and start an automatic parking control along the generated parking trajectory.