A classifying system 10 for a host vehicle 12 includes a sensor 14 and a controller 24 coupled to the host vehicle 12. The sensor 14 detects boundary data of an obstacle 16, 18, 20 and 22. The sensor 14 also generates an obstacle signal, which is received by the controller 24, which then generates a bounding box 26, 28, 30 and 32 for the obstacle 16, 18, 20 and 22. The bounding box 26, 28, 30 and 32 includes a number of vertical pixels 40, corresponding to a maximum height of the obstacle 16, 18, 20 and 22, and a number of horizontal pixels 42, corresponding to a maximum width of the obstacle 16, 18, 20 and 22. The controller 24 includes obstacle classifying logic activating in response to height and width of the obstacle 16, 18, 20 and 22 within parameters of one of a plurality of objects.