DRIVING ASSISTANCE APPARATUS

A driving assistance apparatus to be applied to a vehicle includes a traveling state detector, an emotion determination processor, and a driving assistance processor. The traveling state detector is configured to detect a traveling state of the vehicle. The emotion determination processor is configured to determine an emotion of an occupant of the vehicle. The driving assistance processor is configured to perform driving assistance control including one or both of information presentation to the occupant and traveling assistance control on the vehicle, in accordance with an output of one or both of the traveling state detector and the emotion determination processor. The emotion determination processor is configured to determine a driving unsuitable emotion by comparing, with a predetermined threshold, a difference between a reference value and a current value of a parameter indicating a physical state of the occupant, and to update the reference value at each driving cycle.