Patent ID: 8738275

Claim:
A vehicle group control method that controls the traveling of a vehicle group including a plurality of vehicles which travel in a row, each of the vehicles including an electronic control unit (ECU), comprising: a step of controlling vehicles in each of a plurality of small vehicle groups which are divided from the vehicle group and controlling a relative relationship between the vehicles in each small vehicle group using communication between the ECUs of the vehicles in the corresponding small vehicle group; and a small vehicle group control step of controlling a relative relationship between the small vehicle groups using communication between the ECUs of representative vehicles in the small vehicle groups, wherein, in the small vehicle group control step, when a host vehicle is the representative vehicle in each of the small vehicle groups other than a first small vehicle group, the traveling of the representative vehicles in the small vehicle groups other than a first small vehicle group is controlled using communication between the host vehicle and the representative vehicle in the small vehicle group that is just in front of the small vehicle group including the host vehicle such that a distance from the representative vehicle in the small vehicle group which is just in front of the small vehicle group including a host vehicle is maintained to be uniform.