Vehicle control apparatus having multiple ECUs loaded with respective control programs

A vehicle control apparatus comprising:

• detecting means for detecting vehicle information;
• driving means for driving a vehicle;
• multiple processing executing units for carrying out computation processing based on the vehicle information and outputting driving information to the driving means in accordance with results of the computation processing, wherein the processing executing units are loaded with vehicle control programs distributedly;
• and
• communication means connecting the processing executing units,
• wherein the vehicle control programs include
• an application layer for executing the computation processing,
• a sensor/actuator layer for executing processing dependent on the detecting means and the driving means and carrying out acquisition of the vehicle information and outputting of the driving information,
• an information control layer for at suitable timing acquiring and outputting the vehicle information acquired by the sensor/actuator layer, and
• an interface layer for acquiring and outputting to the application layer the vehicle information outputted from the information control layer on the basis of a request from the application layer, making a request for the vehicle information to another processing executing unit via the communication means, acquiring and outputting to the application layer the vehicle information sent with respect to this request, and sending the vehicle information from the information control layer when a request is made for the vehicle information from another processing executing unit.