US Patent 9809223 Driving assistant for vehicles

A driving assistant for vehicles provides lane change assistance, and includes a proposed lane change section setting unit and a lane change determination unit. The proposed lane change section setting unit provides setting of a proposed lane change section that is a proposed section where an own vehicle enters an adjacent lane, based on relative speeds and relative positions of the own vehicle to respective ones of a plurality of parallel-travelling vehicles on the adjacent lane. The lane change determination unit determines whether or not the own vehicle is allowed to enter the proposed lane change section, based on a moving speed of the proposed lane change section and a speed of the own vehicle.