Patent 7652560 was granted and assigned to Mazda Motor Corporation on January, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A radar device is configured to transmit an electric wave and receives a reflected wave that is generated by a reflection of the electric wave on an object, and to recognize the object is a potential obstacle that is to be hit by the vehicle when a received intensity of the reflected wave thereby is a specified threshold or more. And, the specified threshold has a plurality of preset values. Accordingly, a determination as to whether or not the obstacle detected by the radar device is the potential obstacle to be hit by the vehicle can be accurately made.