A tire-generated sound detection sensor detects a tire-generated sound
that is generated from a tire while the vehicle is running. A wheel
rotation sensor detects a wheel rotation speed. A preprocessor calculates
feature quantities corresponding to a road surface state and
tire-generated sound sources. A feature vector generator generates a
feature vector having, as components, the feature quantities calculated
by the preprocessor and the detected wheel rotation speed. A judgment
processor estimates a state of a road surface on which the vehicle is
running on the basis of the feature vector generated by the feature
vector generator and feature vectors that are stored in a judgment map
memory so as to be correlated with a plurality of road surface states,
respectively, and each of which corresponds to a road surface state and
tire-generated sound sources.