As this type of apparatus, there has been suggested an apparatus for issuing a warning if a vehicle departs from a lane (e.g. refer to a patent document 1). According to a lane departure warning apparatus for a vehicle disclosed in the patent document 1, a passenger and/or a driver is not troubled by that the warning is not issued if the departure direction of the vehicle is equal to the indicated direction of a winker or direction indicator in cases where it is judged that the vehicle departs from a driving lane while the winker is in operation.
Moreover, there has been also suggested an apparatus for evaluating the possibility of steering by the driver and for varying easiness in stopping the steering control in order to solve such a problem that the stop timing of steering control can give an uncomfortable feeling to a driver if the steering control is stopped in accordance with the blinking operation of the winker (e.g. refer to a patent document 2).
Moreover, there has been also suggested an apparatus for judging that the driver consciously changes the lane and for setting a departure judgment flag to be OFF if a direction indicated by a direction switch signal is equal to a direction indicated by the departure direction (e.g. refer to a patent document 3).
Moreover, there has been also suggested an apparatus for changing a steering assist torque if a winker operating direction is equal to a steering direction (e.g. refer to a patent document 4).