DRIVING ASSISTANCE APPARATUS AND DRIVING ASSISTANCE METHOD

A driving assistance apparatus includes: a communication function detection unit that detects whether or not a surrounding vehicle is equipped with a communication function; a surrounding vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires a relative distance between the host vehicle and a surrounding vehicle equipped with the communication function on the basis of information acquired from the surrounding vehicle equipped with the communication function; and a manually driven vehicle estimation unit that estimates whether or not a manually driven vehicle is present around the host vehicle.