US Patent 11049398 Surrounding environment recognizing apparatus

A surrounding environment recognizing apparatus that is mounted on a vehicle and recognizes a surrounding environment of the vehicle includes: an own vehicle information acquiring unit that acquires own vehicle information about motion of the vehicle; a surrounding environment factor acquiring unit that acquires surrounding environment factor information about an environment factor around the vehicle; a time-of-presence range determining unit that determines, based on the own vehicle information, an own vehicle time-of-presence range representing a time-of-presence range of the vehicle for each position around the vehicle; and a risk-of-driving determining unit that determines a risk of driving in an area around the vehicle based on the own vehicle time-of-presence range and the surrounding environment factor information.