A vehicle lighting apparatus includes a plurality of semiconductor light
sources that are connected with each other in series, a switching
regulator for supplying an electric power from a power source to each of
said plurality of semiconductor light sources, forward voltage detection
circuitry for detecting a forward voltage of each of said plurality of
semiconductor light sources, and failure detection circuitry for
detecting the failure of each of said semiconductor light sources based
on the detected value of said forward voltage detection means. A
semiconductor light source having a lower forward voltage is connected
closer to a reference potential side of said power source among said
plurality of semiconductor light sources.