DRIVING ASSISTANCE APPARATUS AND DRIVING ASSISTANCE METHOD

A driving assistance apparatus has: an acquiring section that acquires an infrared image capturing an image capturing area including a driver's seat of a vehicle; a determining section that determines whether a flared highlight has occurred in the infrared image in a case where it is not possible to recognize the driver in the infrared image, on the basis of whether a pixel value of a pixel of a portion capturing an image of an area which is in the image capturing area in the infrared image and is hit by sunlight is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; and a setting section that makes waiting time longer than reference time, the waiting time being a time point at which a warning is given in a case where it is determined that the flared highlight has occurred in the infrared image.