A driving assist apparatus activates a safety device for avoiding a collision of an own vehicle with a target or reducing damage from the collision. The driving assist apparatus determines start of a collision avoidance operation for the target. The driving assist apparatus performs a delaying process for delaying an activation timing of the safety device, when the start of the collision avoidance operation is determined, the delaying process setting the activation timing to a timing later than a timing that would be set when the start of the collision avoidance operation is not determined. The driving assist apparatus determines, based on the activation timing, whether to activate the safety device. The driving assist apparatus continuously performs the delaying process until a predetermined time period elapses after the start of the collision avoidance operation.