Vehicle exterior environment recognition apparatus

A vehicle exterior environment recognition apparatus includes a computer configured to serve as a vehicle identifier, a candidate identifier, an overexposure identifier, a movement amount deriving unit, a moving overexposure identifier, an overexposure range setting unit, and a lamp determiner. The candidate identifier identifies a light-emission source candidate. The overexposure identifier identifies an overexposed light-emission source candidate. The movement amount deriving unit derives an amount of movement of the overexposed light-emission source candidate. The moving overexposure identifier identifies a moving overexposed light-emission source, when the amount of movement is equal to or greater than a threshold. The overexposure range setting unit sets an overexposure range with respect to the moving overexposed light-emission source. The lamp determiner determines whether the identified light-emission source candidate is a lighted lamp, based on different conditions between the light-emission source candidate in the overexposure range and that in a range other than the overexposure range.