Parking assist apparatus

1. A parking assist apparatus for assisting parking of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a candidate target parking position setting section for temporarily setting a candidate target parking position for the vehicle for each of a plurality of parking modes in a predetermined stop position;

a target parking position determining section for determining a parking mode from the plurality of parking modes and a target parking position corresponding to the determined parking mode, based on an operation of a steering wheel by a driver after the candidate target parking positions are set; and

a guiding section for guiding the vehicle to the target parking position.

2. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the target parking position determining section determines that a parking mode is parallel parking when the steering wheel is not operated by a predetermined amount or more, while determines that the parking mode is garage parking when the steering wheel is operated by the predetermined amount or more in the vicinity of the predetermined stop position.

3. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the target parking position determining section determines that a parking mode is right side garage parking when the steering wheel is operated counterclockwise by a predetermined amount or more, while determines that the parking mode is left side garage parking when the steering wheel is operated clockwise by the predetermined amount or more in the vicinity of the predetermined stop position.

4. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the guiding section is adapted to guide the vehicle to a reverse movement starting position located forwardly of the predetermined stop position and then guide the vehicle to the target parking position located rearwardly of the reverse movement starting position, and

wherein the target parking position determining section determines that a parking mode is right side parallel parking when the steering wheel is operated clockwise by the predetermined amount or more in the vicinity of the reverse movement starting position, while determines that the parking mode is left side parallel parking when the steering wheel is operated counterclockwise by the predetermined amount or more.

5. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the target parking position determining section determines a parking mode based on the operation of the steering wheel when the vehicle is at a stop.

6. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the guiding section is adapted to guide the vehicle to the target parking position through a reverse movement starting position that is located forwardly of the predetermined stop position based on automatic steering control, and

wherein the steering wheel acts as instruction input means for instructing the target parking position determining section on a parking mode after the parking assistance is started and before the automatic steering control is started, and acts as halt input means for instructing the guiding section of a halt of the automatic steering control after the automatic steering control is started and before the automatic steering control is completed.

7. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 1 being adapted to assist the parking of the vehicle corresponding to a plurality of parking modes, wherein the candidate target parking position determining section is adapted to determine a candidate target parking position for each of the target parking modes in the predetermined stop position thereby determining the plurality of candidate target parking positions corresponding to the plurality of parking modes, and wherein the target parking position determining section is adapted to determine a parking mode and the target parking position corresponding to the parking mode from the plurality of parking modes and the plurality of candidate target parking positions based on an operation of the steering wheel performed by a driver.

8. The parking assist apparatus as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the plurality of parking modes include at least two modes of a right side garage parking, a left side garage parking, a right side parallel parking, and a left side parallel parking.