A device including a radar and a camera for detecting an object located in front
of an automobile is mounted on the automobile. The radar detects a distance from
the automobile to the front object, and the camera takes an image of the object.
When the object such as a preceding vehicle moves out of a region detectable by
the radar while remaining in a region covered by the camera, a present distance
to the object is calculated based on the distance previously detected by the radar
and memorized in a memory and a present object image taken by the camera. More
particularly, the present distance is calculated by multiplying the memorized distance
by a ratio of an object size in the memorized image to an object size in the present image.