US Patent 7194347 Vehicle control apparatus, vehicle control method, and computer program

A vehicle control apparatus includes an information acquiring/managing unit that acquires information for controlling various units in a vehicle instead of a driver of the vehicle, and manages the information acquired, a situation determining unit that determines a situation under which the vehicle is placed, based on the information, a danger determining unit that selects predetermined information corresponding to the situation from among the information, and determines degree of danger of the situation based on the predetermined information, and a vehicle controller that controls predetermined units in the vehicle in such a manner that the degree of danger is reduced.