Patent 10255811 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on April, 2019 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
On a basis of a relative position of an obstacle 401, a size of the obstacle in an own vehicle 12 width direction and a width of the own vehicle 12, a maximum amount Dt of movement of the own vehicle 12 in the vehicle width direction as required to avoid the obstacle 401 is calculated. A point displaced over the maximum amount of movement toward a side of the adjacent lane from the relative position of the obstacle 401 is determined as an avoiding point 250. If a distance d between the avoiding point 250 and the adjacent lane is greater than the width Wm of the own vehicle 12, an avoiding path is generated for allowing the own vehicle 12 to pass the avoiding point 250.