Vehicle driving assistance apparatus, vehicle driving assistance method, and storage medium storing vehicle driving assistance program

A vehicle driving assistance method for executing an autonomous driving control of autonomously driving a host vehicle,

• wherein the autonomous driving control includes an intermittent driving control,
• wherein the intermittent driving control is a control of driving the host vehicle by autonomously and alternately executing a propelling control of propelling the host vehicle by a driving force and a coasting control of causing the host vehicle to coast such that a traveling speed of the host vehicle falls within a predetermined speed range in a situation where a preceding vehicle does not exist, and by autonomously and alternately executing the propelling control and the coasting control such that an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle falls within a predetermined distance range in a situation where the preceding vehicle exists,
• wherein the method includes a step of not executing the intermittent driving control when a shift operation device of the host vehicle is set to a manual position, and
• wherein the manual position is a shift position in which an operator of the host vehicle manually changes a gear ratio of a transmission of the host vehicle.

A computer-readable storage medium storing a vehicle driving assistance program of executing an autonomous driving control of autonomously driving a host vehicle,

• wherein the autonomous driving control includes an intermittent driving control,
• wherein the intermittent driving control is a control of driving the host vehicle by autonomously and alternately executing a propelling control of propelling the host vehicle by a driving force and a coasting control of causing the host vehicle to coast such that a traveling speed of the host vehicle falls within a predetermined speed range in a situation where a preceding vehicle does not exist, and by autonomously and alternately executing the propelling control and the coasting control such that an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle falls within a predetermined distance range in a situation where the preceding vehicle exists,
• wherein the vehicle driving assistance program is configured not to execute the intermittent driving control when a shift operation device of the host vehicle is set to a manual position, and
• wherein the manual position is a shift position in which an operator of the host vehicle manually changes a gear ratio of a transmission of the host vehicle.