OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT RECOGNITION DEVICE AND OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT RECOGNITION METHOD

There is provided an outside environment recognition device that rapidly performs target recognition processing when there is a possibility that a target coming into contact with an own vehicle appears. There is provided an outside environment recognition device that recognizes a target. An arithmetic operation device includes a blind region edge detection unit that detects an edge of a blind region where the target is likely to appear, based on outside environment information, a traveling path estimation unit that estimates a future path of the own vehicle based on a traveling direction and a speed of the own vehicle included in vehicle information, a recognition region division unit that divides a region between the edge and the path into a first region to which first target recognition processing is applied and a second region to which second target recognition processing is applied, based on a contact possibility between the own vehicle and a virtual target appearing on the path from the edge, and a target detection unit that detects a target appearing from the edge by applying the first target recognition processing in the first region, and detects the target appearing from the edge by applying the second target recognition processing in the second region. The first target recognition processing and the second target recognition processing have different recognition sensitivities.