Information processing device

Abstract

To perform an appropriate driving support based on a determination about whether or not a vehicle drives onto a railroad crossing.SOLUTION: An information processing device is loaded on a vehicle. The information processing device comprises a communication section, a positioning section, an imaging section, a control section, and an output section. The communication section is capable of acquiring positional information of an object on a road from a road-side unit installed beyond a railroad crossing which is positioned at a front side on the road where the vehicle is traveling. The positioning section detects a present position of the vehicle. The imaging section images the outside of the vehicle and generates image information. The control section generates driving support information for supporting driving of a driver based on the positional information of the object, the present position of the vehicle and information indicating a positional relation between the railroad crossing and the vehicle. The output section outputs the driving support information. When an image on a display board of a road-side unit provided in front of the railroad crossing is detected in the image information as the information indicating the positional relation between the railroad crossing and the vehicle, the control section determines whether or not the vehicle passes a position of the display board and makes the driving support information different depending on a determination result.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus.

Background Art

[0002] In order to reduce level crossing accidents, it has been proposed that a wayside device provided around a level crossing transmits information indicating the traffic conditions of the road on the exit side of the level crossing to a vehicle (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In Patent Document 1, the transmission content transmitted by the wayside device to the vehicle includes the position information of the level crossing, the information on the distance between the entrance and the exit, the position information of the preceding vehicle on the exit side, the information on the signal located ahead of the level crossing, and the like. Further, when the vehicle-side system receives the information transmitted from the wayside device, it displays information for alerting the driver and / or performs deceleration control for stopping the vehicle before the level crossing or entry prohibition control.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In the prior art, although it is possible to acquire information on the traffic conditions of the road ahead of the level crossing from the wayside device, there is a concern that it may not be possible to determine whether the vehicle has entered the level crossing, and thus appropriate support may not be provided to the driver. The prior art has room for improvement in terms of improving the certainty of determining whether the vehicle has entered the level crossing.

[0005] In view of such circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to provide appropriate driving support based on a determination as to whether a vehicle has entered a level crossing.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is an information processing apparatus mounted on a vehicle, and is configured to be able to acquire position information of an object on a road from a roadside unit installed at the tip of a railroad crossing located in front of the road being traveled. A communication unit, a positioning unit that detects the current position of the vehicle, an imaging unit that images the outside of the vehicle and generates image information, and based on the position information of the object, the current position of the vehicle, and information indicating the positional relationship between the railroad crossing and the vehicle. A control unit that generates driving support information for supporting the driving of the driver, and an output unit that outputs the driving support information. The control unit determines whether or not the position of the display board has been passed when an image of the display board of the roadside unit provided in front of the railroad crossing is detected in the image information as information indicating the positional relationship between the railroad crossing and the vehicle, and the driving support information is made different according to the determination result. It is characterized by that.

Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present disclosure, appropriate driving support can be performed based on the determination of whether or not the vehicle has entered the railroad crossing.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0008]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0009] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. The figures used in the following description are schematic. Dimensions, ratios, etc. on the drawings do not necessarily match the actual ones.

[0010] (Road traffic system to which the present disclosure is applied) FIG. 1 shows an example of a road traffic system in which the processing by an information processing apparatus 30 (see FIG. 3) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is preferably performed. In the road traffic system of FIG. 1, a road 11 crosses a railway line 12, and the intersection of the road 11 and the railway line 12 is a level crossing 13. Further, a signal 14 is provided at the end of the road above the level crossing 13 in FIG. 1.

[0011] In such a traffic environment, if the vehicle 10 attempts to pass through the level crossing 13 from the lower side in FIG. 1, if the road 11 ahead of the level crossing 13 is congested by an object 18 waiting for a signal or the like, there is a concern that the vehicle 10 cannot pass through the level crossing 13 and will stay on the railway line 12. It is extremely dangerous for the vehicle 10 to stop inside the level crossing 13. Note that the object 18 is a moving body on the road and includes other vehicles different from the vehicle 10. Other vehicles include automobiles and motorcycles.

[0012] Therefore, a roadside unit 15 equipped with a sensor capable of detecting an object 18 on the road 11 is arranged at the end of the road 11 after passing through the level crossing 13. The roadside unit 15 detects the traffic situation of the road 11 ahead of the level crossing 13 and provides information on this traffic situation to the vehicle 10 passing around the roadside unit 15. The roadside unit 15 can provide information to the vehicle 10 traveling around by means of wireless communication and / or a display board 16 provided on the roadside on the lane side where the vehicle 10 in front of the level crossing 13 passes. More specifically, the roadside unit 15 can detect an object 18 existing in the detection range 17 on the road 11 and transmit the position information of the detected object 18 to the vehicle 10 traveling around. Note that in the present application, in front of the level crossing 13 means a position closer to the level crossing 13 than the level crossing 13 as seen from the vehicle 10 when the vehicle 10 travels toward the level crossing 13.

[0013] Note that the vehicle 10 of the present disclosure is, for example, an automobile, but is not limited thereto and may be any vehicle. The vehicle 10 may be any of a passenger car, a bus, and a truck. The automobile may be, for example, a gasoline automobile, a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle), an HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle), a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), or an FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle), etc., but is not limited thereto.

[0014] (Configuration of roadside unit system) The roadside unit system installed on the road 11 includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a roadside unit 15 provided on the roadside of the road 11 and a display board 16 capable of communicating with the roadside unit 15 by wire communication or wireless communication.

[0015] The roadside unit 15 includes, for example, a plurality of components arranged on a utility pole or a dedicated columnar structure. The plurality of components include, for example, an external I / F unit 21, a control unit 22, a sensor unit 23, and a vehicle communication unit 24.

[0016] The external I / F unit 21 is a communication interface that communicably connects the roadside unit 15 to an external server or the like that manages the roadside unit 15. The external server can transmit information to be displayed on the display board 16, operation instructions, etc. to the roadside unit 15. Further, the external server can transmit various programs executed by the information processing device 30 to the information processing device 30. The external I / F unit 21 may correspond to a wired communication system such as an optical cable or a wireless communication system such as the 4th generation mobile communication system (4G) like LTE (Long Term Evolution), the 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), or WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).

[0017] The control unit 22 is configured to include a single or a plurality of processors and memories. The processors include a general-purpose processor that executes programmed functions by loading a specific program, and a dedicated processor specialized for specific processing. As the dedicated processor, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), etc. can be adopted. The control unit 22 manages each component of the roadside unit 15 and executes the processing as the roadside unit 15. The control unit 22 can transmit the information generated based on the information detected by the sensor unit 23 to the vehicle 10 traveling around by the vehicle communication unit 24. The control unit 22 can control the display content of the display panel 16.

[0018] The sensor unit 23 is a sensor that detects an object 18 located in the detection range 17 on the road 11. The sensors of the sensor unit 23 include sensors selected from various sensors including, for example, a camera, an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a millimeter-wave radar, a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), etc. The information detected by the sensor unit 23 undergoes processing according to the type of the sensors of the sensor unit 22 in the control unit 22. For example, when the sensor unit 23 includes a camera, the control unit 22 performs a process of recognizing the object 18 included in the image by image processing. Thereby, the control unit 22 grasps the object 18 located in the detection range 17 together with the position information. The roadside unit 15 has accurate coordinate information of the installed position, and can calculate the position coordinates of the detected object 18 using this. Note that the roadside unit 15 may be provided with a receiver of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) in order to acquire the coordinate information of the installation position.

[0019] The vehicle communication unit 24 provides a vehicle-roadside communication function for communicating with the vehicle 10 located around the roadside unit 15. The vehicle communication unit 24 may use a communication system compliant with ARIB STD-T109 or IEEE802.11p. Also, the vehicle communication unit 24 may use a mobile communication system based on 4G or 5G such as LTE. The vehicle communication unit 24 notifies the surrounding vehicles 10 of the presence or absence of the object 18 located in the detection range 17, and when the object 18 exists, its position information. The communication from the vehicle communication unit 24 to the vehicle 10 may be performed in a broadcast mode or a multicast mode.

[0020] In addition to the above, the roadside unit 15 may include various components such as a temperature sensor, a sensor for measuring the flow of people, a sensor for detecting the road surface condition, and a speaker for providing information by voice. Further, the roadside unit 15 may be equipped with devices and facilities for various purposes, such as a base station for wireless communication such as Wi-Fi or 5G, charging facilities for digital devices, street lights, solar panels, etc.

[0021] The display panel 16 displays the information generated by the roadside unit 15. The display panel 16 displays characters and / or graphics, for example, by a large number of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) arranged two-dimensionally. The display panel 16 may support color display or single-color display. The control unit 22 controls the display content of the display panel 16. The display panel 16 is arranged immediately in front of the level crossing 13 in order to alert the driver of the vehicle 10 before passing through the level crossing 13. The control unit 22 may display a message for alerting the driver of the vehicle 10, such as "There are vehicles waiting for signals ahead", when a plurality of objects 18 are staying in the detection range 17. However, there may be cases where the driver of the vehicle 10 does not notice the display on such a display panel 16, or where the information for the vehicle 10 is not displayed on the display panel when the vehicle 10 passes through the display panel 16. The information displayed on the display panel 16 is not limited to the information for the driver of the vehicle 10, and may also display information for pedestrians, etc.

[0022] (Configuration of the information processing device) The vehicle 10 is equipped with an information processing device 30 that provides information to assist the driver's driving. As shown in FIG. 3, the information processing device 30 includes a communication unit 31, a storage unit 32, a control unit 33, a positioning unit 34, an imaging unit 35, and an output unit 36.

[0023] The communication unit 31 includes a communication interface for performing V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communication with the outside of the vehicle 10. The communication interface may include communication faces corresponding to wide-area communication and narrow-area communication. The communication interface includes an interface for vehicle-to-roadside communication corresponding to the communication method of the vehicle communication unit 24 of the roadside unit 15. The communication unit 31 can acquire the position information of the object 18 on the road 11 ahead of the level crossing 13 from the roadside unit 15.

[0024] The storage unit 32 includes one or more memories. The memory is, for example, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic memory, or an optical memory. Each memory included in the storage unit 32 may function as, for example, a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device, or a cache memory. The storage unit 32 stores any information used for the operation of the information processing device 30. For example, the storage unit 32 may store a system program, an application program, and embedded software.

[0025] The control unit 33 includes at least one processor, at least one dedicated circuit, or a combination thereof. The processor is a general-purpose processor such as a CPU or a GPU, or a dedicated processor specialized for specific processing. The dedicated circuit is, for example, an FPGA or an ASIC. The control unit 33 executes processes related to the operation of the information processing device 30 while controlling each part of the information processing device 30.

[0026] The positioning unit 34 detects the current position of the vehicle 10. The positioning unit 34 includes a receiver corresponding to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The positioning unit 34 can obtain information such as the latitude and longitude of the current position of the vehicle 10 using the signals from the GNSS receiver. GNSS is a system that measures the position of the vehicle 10 using artificial satellites and includes, for example, GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. The positioning unit 34 can transmit a signal representing the positioning result of the current position of the vehicle 10 based on the GNSS signal to the control unit 33 at a predetermined cycle.

[0027] The control unit 33 can detect the traveling direction of the vehicle by any method, including the change in the current position of the vehicle 10 and the direction in which the vehicle 10 is facing detected by an azimuth sensor or the like. The control unit 33 can recognize that there is an object 18 in front of the vehicle 10 from the relationship between the position information of the object 18 acquired from the roadside unit 15 via the communication unit 31 and the current position of the vehicle 10 acquired from the positioning unit 34.

[0028] The imaging unit 35 includes one or more cameras capable of imaging the periphery of the vehicle 10. The imaging unit 35 may include a camera that captures a wide-angle image with the optical axis facing forward of the vehicle 10 and / or a camera that captures an image of the side of the vehicle 10. The imaging unit 35 includes an optical system such as a lens and an imaging device. The imaging device may include either a CCD image sensor (Charge-Coupled Device Image Sensor) or a CMOS image sensor (Complementary MOS Image Sensor). The imaging device converts the image formed on the light-receiving surface by the optical system into an electrical signal. The imaging unit 35 can transmit the image information of the image captured of the outside of the vehicle 10 during travel to the control unit 33.

[0029] Based on the image information acquired from the imaging unit 35, the control unit 33 can perform image recognition processing. The control unit 33 identifies the display board 16 arranged on the front side of the level crossing 13. The display board 16 has a high-brightness portion that includes a large number of LEDs and displays an image. Also, the portion of the display board 16 that displays the image may have a shape such as a vertically long rectangle, for example. Using these features, the control unit 33 can detect the display board 16 of the roadside unit 15 from the acquired image information of the outside of the vehicle 10. The control unit 33 may be configured to detect the display board 16 from the image information using machine learning. The control unit 33 can determine whether the vehicle has passed through the position of the detected display board 16 from the image of the display board 16. When the display board 16 is positioned directly beside the vehicle 10 in the image information, the control unit 33 may determine that the vehicle has passed through the position of the display board 16. Also, even if the directly beside direction is not included in the field of view imaged by the imaging unit 35 and the display board 16 is detected in front of the vehicle 10, the control unit 33 may calculate the timing to pass by the side of the display board 16 in consideration of the speed of the vehicle 10. When determining that the vehicle has passed through the position of the display board 16 of the roadside unit 15 provided in front of the level crossing 13, the control unit 33 determines that the vehicle 10 has entered the level crossing 13.

[0030] The output unit 36 outputs information to the driver of the vehicle 10. The output unit 36 includes, for example, a display that outputs information as an image, a speaker that outputs information as sound, and the like. The display may be, for example, a display selected from various displays such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic EL (electro luminescence) display, an inorganic EL display, a plasma display panel (PDP), and a field emission display (FED). Further, the display may be a head-up display (HUD). The HUD may project the display image onto the front windshield or onto a combiner disposed on the dashboard. The speaker converts an audio signal into physical vibrations to generate sound in space. The speaker can use an audio speaker installed inside the vehicle 10. The speaker can be disposed on the door, dashboard, pillar, etc. of the vehicle 10. As the speaker, a known general speaker can be used. The output unit 36 outputs the driving support information generated by the control unit 33 to the driver of the vehicle 10 by image and / or sound. Further, the output unit 36 may be an output interface that outputs information to a device external to the information processing device 30.

[0031] The control unit 33 can cause the output unit 36 to output driving support information for assisting the driver of the vehicle 10 in driving. The control unit 33 can generate different driving support information according to whether the vehicle 10 has passed the position of the display board 16 and entered the level crossing 13. When the vehicle 10 is before entering the level crossing 13, the control unit 33 can change the content of the driving support information based on the road conditions ahead of the level crossing 13, that is, information on whether an object 18 is located on the road 11 in the traveling direction of the vehicle 10. The control unit 33 can further change the content of the driving support information according to the number of objects 18 within the detection range 17 detected by the roadside unit 15 ahead of the level crossing 13 and the positions of the respective objects 18. When the vehicle 10 has entered the level crossing 13, the control unit 33 can generate driving support information instructing the driver to quickly exit the level crossing 13 and present it to the driver.

[0032] (Information Processing Method) The flow of the process executed by the control unit 33 of the information processing apparatus 30 will be described below with reference to FIG. 4. The method disclosed in this specification can be executed by a processor included in the information processing apparatus 30 according to a program. Such a program can be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The non-transitory computer-readable medium includes various types of recording media. Examples of the non-transitory computer-readable medium include magnetic recording media, magneto-optical recording media, and semiconductor memories. Magnetic storage media include, for example, hard disks and magnetic tapes. Magneto-optical recording media include, for example, CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory). Semiconductor memories include RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), and flash memories. The non-transitory computer-readable medium is not limited to these.

[0033] First, while the vehicle 10 is approaching the level crossing 13, the control unit 33 detects, via the communication unit 31, the communication emitted by the roadside unit 15 (S01). It is assumed that the roadside unit 15 is transmitting information to the vehicles 10 traveling around it all at once.

[0034] The control unit 33 acquires the number of objects 18 located on the road 11 and the position information of each object 18 through communication from the roadside unit 15 (S02). The object 18 is typically another vehicle waiting for the switching of the signal 14 ahead of the level crossing 13. The control unit 33 acquires the position information of the object 18 as information such as, for example, latitude and longitude.

[0035] The control unit 33 acquires the current position of the vehicle 10 based on the signal from the positioning unit 34 (S03). The current position of the vehicle 10 is information such as, for example, latitude and longitude. Thereby, the control unit 33 can grasp the positional relationship between the current position of the vehicle 10 and the position of the object 18. However, just by this, the control unit 33 cannot grasp the positional relationship between the vehicle 10 and the level crossing 13. In particular, the control unit 33 cannot determine whether the vehicle 10 has already entered the level crossing 13.

[0036] The control unit 33 detects the image of the display board 16 of the roadside unit system from the image information acquired from the imaging unit 35 (S04).

[0037] The control unit 33 determines whether it has passed the position of the display board 16 based on the image of the display board 16 detected in S04 (S05). Passing the position of the display board 16 means entering the level crossing 13. Note that "passing the position of the display board 16" means passing by the side of the position where the display board 16 is installed on the road 11.

[0038] When it has passed the position of the display board 16 (S05: Yes), it is not preferable for the vehicle 10 to stay within the level crossing 13. Therefore, the control unit 33 generates driving support information that promptly prompts the vehicle 10 to exit from within the level crossing 13 regardless of the presence and position information of the object 18 (S06). The control unit 33 causes the generated driving support information to be output to the output unit 36 (S06). That is, the control unit 33 displays the driving support information on the display which is the output unit 36 and / or notifies the driver of the driving support information through a speaker.

[0039] When the vehicle 10 has not passed the position of the display board 16 (S05: No), the control unit 33 determines whether one or more objects 18 are located within the detection range 17 on the road 11 ahead of the vehicle 10 after crossing the level crossing 13 (S07).

[0040] The object 18 located within the detection range 17 can be an obstacle for the vehicle 10 to cross the level crossing 13. Therefore, when there is an object 18 ahead of the level crossing 13 (S07: Yes), the control unit 33 generates driving support information to alert the driver (S08) and causes it to be output to the output unit 36. In this case, the control unit 33 may display a message such as "The area ahead of the level crossing is congested. Please wait before entering the level crossing." on the display which is the output unit 36, and / or cause it to be announced audibly from the speaker.

[0041] On the other hand, when there is no object 18 ahead of the level crossing 13 (S07: No), the control unit 33 generates driving support information to inform the driver that they can drive safely (S09) and causes it to be output to the output unit 36. In this case, the control unit 33 may display a message such as "The area ahead of the level crossing is clear. Please proceed with caution." on the display which is the output unit 36, and / or announce it audibly from the speaker.

[0042] As described above, according to the present embodiment, the control unit 33 determines the entry of the vehicle 10 into the level crossing 13 by detecting the image of the display board 16 from the image information captured by the imaging unit 35, so that appropriate driving support can be provided to the driver of the vehicle 10. Further, according to the present embodiment, when the vehicle 10 has not entered the level crossing 13, appropriate driving support can be provided to the driver of the vehicle 10 based on the position information of the object 18 acquired by the roadside unit 15 by the control unit 33. Thereby, the safety of the vehicle 10 traveling on or about to enter the level crossing 13 is improved. In addition, the information processing device 30 according to the present embodiment does not need to include detailed digital map information and / or a processor that performs advanced image recognition processing, so it can be provided at low cost.

[0043] In one embodiment, the roadside unit 15 may be configured to cooperate with the signal 14 and notify the vehicle 10 of the state of the signal. The control unit 33 of the vehicle 10 may generate driving assistance information according to the state of the signal in addition to the presence of a vehicle within the detection range 17 ahead of the level crossing 13. For example, when the color of the signal 14 is "red", the control unit 33 may generate driving assistance information that suppresses entry into the level crossing 13. For example, when the color of the signal 14 is "blue", the control unit 33 may generate driving assistance information that permits entry into the level crossing 13 even if an object 18 exists in the detection range 17.

[0044] In another embodiment, the roadside unit 15 may transmit not only the presence and position information of the object 18 detected by the sensor unit 23 but also the position information of the barrier on the far side (the side farther away) of the level crossing 13 as seen from the vehicle 10. By receiving this information, the control unit 33 can grasp the positional relationship between the object 18 located ahead of the level crossing 13 and the barrier on the far side of the level crossing 13. Thereby, the control unit 33 can determine whether there is a space for the vehicle 10 to enter between the object 18 staying ahead of the level crossing 13 and the barrier of the level crossing 13. As a result, when the vehicle 10 is in front of the level crossing 13, the control unit 33 can more accurately determine whether it is possible to enter the level crossing 13.

[0045] Also, even when the control unit 33 cannot obtain the position information of the barrier on the far side of the level crossing 13 as seen from the vehicle 10 from the roadside unit 15, the control unit 33 can estimate the width of the level crossing 13 based on the number of tracks 12 crossing the road. The control unit 33 may determine whether entry into the level crossing 13 is possible based on the current position of the vehicle 10 detected by the positioning unit 34, the position of the object 18 closest to the level crossing 13, and the width of the level crossing 13.

[0046] In still other embodiments, the roadside unit 15 may transmit information on the maximum number of objects 18 that can stay inside the detection range 17 to the vehicle 10 based on the length of the detection range 17. The control unit 33 may generate driving assistance information according to the maximum number of objects 18 that can stay in the detection range 17 acquired from the roadside unit 15 and the number of objects 18 detected by the sensor unit 23 of the roadside unit 15. For example, before the vehicle 10 enters the level crossing 13, if the number of objects 18 detected by the sensor unit 23 is equal to the maximum number of objects 18 that can stay in the detection range 17, the control unit 33 may determine that there is no space for the vehicle 10 to stay ahead of the level crossing 13. In this case, the control unit 33 may generate driving assistance information for suppressing entry into the level crossing 13.

[0047] In the above embodiment, the control unit 33 presented the driving assistance information to the driver using the output unit 36 such as a display or a speaker. However, the control unit 33 may generate information used for the driving control of the vehicle 10 as the driving assistance information. In this case, the output interface that outputs the driving assistance information from the information processing device 30 to the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) of the vehicle 10 can be regarded as the output unit 36. For example, when the vehicle 10 is an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle 10 may stop in front of the level crossing 13 and enter the level crossing 13 based on the driving assistance information generated by the control unit 33. The level of automation of the autonomous vehicle may be, for example, any one of levels 1 to 5 in the level classification of the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), but the level of automation of the autonomous vehicle is not limited to these.

[0048] Note that the present invention is not limited only to the above embodiments, and many modifications or alterations are possible. For example, the functions and the like included in each means, each step, etc. can be rearranged so as not to be logically contradictory, and a plurality of means or steps, etc. can be combined into one or divided.

Explanation of Reference Numerals

[0049] 10 Vehicle 11 Road 12 Track 13 Level crossing 14 Signal 15 Roadside unit 16 Display board 17 Detection range 18 Object (other vehicle) 21 External I / F section 22 Control section 23 Sensor section 24 Vehicle communication section 30 Information processing device 31 Communication section 32 Memory section 33 Control section 34 Positioning section 35 Imaging section 36 Output section

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus mounted on a vehicle, a communication unit configured to be able to acquire position information of an object on a road from a roadside unit installed at the front of a level crossing located ahead of the road during travel; a positioning unit that detects the current position of the vehicle; an imaging unit that images the outside of the vehicle to generate image information; a control unit that generates driving support information for assisting the driver's driving based on the position information of the object, the current position of the vehicle, and information indicating the positional relationship between the level crossing and the vehicle; an output unit that outputs the driving support information and is provided with; When an image of a display board of the roadside unit provided in front of the level crossing is detected in the image information as information indicating the positional relationship between the level crossing and the vehicle, the control unit determines whether or not it has passed the position of the display board, and varies the driving support information according to the determination result. An information processing apparatus.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the control unit determines that it has not passed the position of the display board, information based on the position information of the object and the current position is generated as the driving support information.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when the object is located in the traveling direction of the vehicle based on the position information of the object and the current position of the vehicle, the control unit generates information for alerting the driver as the driving support information.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when there is no object in the traveling direction of the vehicle based on the position information of the object and the current position of the vehicle, the control unit generates information for notifying that the level crossing can be safely passed as the driving support information.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the control unit determines that it has passed the position of the display board, the control unit generates information instructing the driver to quickly leave the level crossing as the driving support information.

Images